


Halocline

by shulkie



Series: Ereri Week! [5]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Animal Death, Fluff, M/M, Side MobuHan, a lot of fish get eaten, merman levi, side isafar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-09 16:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 33,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4356392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shulkie/pseuds/shulkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lousy vacation puts Eren's life at jeopardy when he goes for a midnight surf and gets caught in a storm only to be saved by a mysterious creature. Eren tries to communicate with his new friend but it's hard when you don't speak fish.</p><p>This is from a series of drabbles on Tumblr called "Merfluff."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ereri Week Day 6: Storm.
> 
> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> TW: Animal Death, Near Drowning.

The vacation had been a total bust. What was supposed to be a perfect week of high waves on a remote island paradise, turned into several games of euchre with Armin and Mikasa, staring out the window at the rain. Finally on night six, Eren had enough. He snuck out of the bungalow to see large cresting waves, the perfect size. Who cared that the sky was dark and threatening to rain? Not Eren.

Which…as his board hit a rock, his tether snapped, and he felt a riptide snag his foot…he was now realizing was a poor decision. As the weight of the ocean pushed down on him, he reflected it wasn’t all bad. Armin and Mikasa would be upset, but he’d had a good 22 years of hellraising. He’d been a good brother and a good friend. Well maybe not to Jean, but that was half Jean’s fault. As he felt the riptide tug at his ankle again, dragging him further out to sea, he prepared for the worst.

Wait a second.

Why was he just giving up? This was the same Eren who had scored the winning goal for his team with a concussion and a bleeding broken nose! Eren struggled for the surface, kicking frantically, clawing toward air, blessed air! His lungs screamed and he broke gasping, only to have a heavy wave crash on top of him, filling his mouth with water. He coughed and spit it out, sucking in another breath, swallowing more water. He saw something cutting through the water. A white fin? No! His board! It glided steadily toward Eren, despite the waves battering it and him. He swam, arms fighting against the current. Grabbing his board, he scrambled up on it, lying flat, letting the waves wash over him him, trying not to flip over. As wave after wave buffeted him, he put his head down and he must have passed out because he didn’t remember much after that and he didn’t feel the board being gently guided to shore.

When he woke, it was early morning, the sun just starting to crest over the hills and the front of his board was buried in sand. His hands were white knuckled from gripping the edge and he uncurled them, stretching and flexing his hand. He sat up, wet sand stuck to his salty lips. He stood on shaky legs, only to be knocked to his knees by the surf. He vomited the salt water in his belly, retching until nothing came up. As he wiped his mouth and looked out over the cove he saw something shift behind a rock.

Eren tilted his head and there! He saw it again. It hid behind the rock.

“Hello?” he called out, his throat raspy. “Can you tell me where I am?”

Well judging by how the sun was at his back, peeking over the mountains, he was somewhere on the west side of the island.

He turned back to the figure and it bobbed out of sight.

Eren realized how stupid he was, just then. He was talking to a seal, or a gull, or maybe even a piece of plastic, he couldn’t tell from the way his eyes stung. He stumbled over to the rock to get a better view and his knees collapsed. He hissed in pain and inspected a cut on his knee. As he sat there in pain, he felt a pair of eyes on him and turned and locked eyes with the creature.

Eren’s jaw dropped and he froze. There in the surf was a half-submerged face—an almost human face. The eyes flitted from Eren’s own then down to his cut knee, then back up to his eyes. It bobbed closer and then slowly lifted its face out of the water. Its pointed ears rotated forward and it exhaled, unsealing its nostrils. Eren watched as it came closer and he felt his stomach drop in horror as it extended a clawed hand toward him, sunlight streaming through the webbing between its fingers. Eren’s eyes followed the claw as it moved toward his cheek and he jerked away. The creature quickly withdrew the hand and then without warning it was off and away, a serpentine tail arcing over and under the waves.

“I must have hit my head too,” Eren said aloud.

Eren pulled his board to shore and struggled along until he found a road and was able to hitchhike to the bungalow. That night, when he went to retrieve his board and looked out at the moonlit cove and for a second he thought he could see something reflected in the waves out there. He shivered and picked up his board.

<*>  
He found himself out there the next morning, walking a couple miles from the bungalow to the isolated beach. It was slightly chillier than earlier in the week so he wore a pair of jeans and a hoodie as he tripped along shaking sand out of his sneakers.

The water lapped at the shore and for a moment it sounded like whispers.

“Hello?” he called.

He felt silly, talking to himself, but the vivid hallucination he’d experienced earlier still rattled him. He rolled up his jeans and walked over to the rock where he’d experienced his vision. Sitting down he looked out at the water as the sun began rising over the mountains and hitting his back. The feel of heat from the sun and his early morning had him feeling drowsy so he stretched out on the rough rock and looked down into the azure water. He ran his finger along the surface, dipping down into the water before tucking both hands under his head. There with the sound of gulls and the water lapping he nodded off, lulled into sleep by the beautiful melody of the serene landscape.

When he woke up it was because of a strange smell under his nose. He blinked a speck of sand out of his eye to realize that there was a flopping fish next to him.

“AH!” he said slapping at it.

It fell into the water and righted, darting away. Eren looked out and saw a pair of eyes floating just over the water and he gasped. Then they were gone and it could have just been a bit of flotsam. Eren shook his head and peered out on the horizon, suddenly vigilant. Then there was a flash of silver at his side and he whirled around to see the same fish flopping about. The eyes hovered above the water and looked from the fish to Eren then back to the fish. Eren reared back in terror and the creature lifted its nose out of the water and exhaled again in a huffing sound, its nostrils flaring.

Eren stared at the figure in the water as the fish leapt and rolled back into the sea. The creature chased it and returned with it fingers hooked under the fish’s gills. Dipping it in the water and back out several times it placed the fish next to Eren.

“No thank you?” Eren said.

The creature’s ears rotated forward at the sound of Eren’s voice. It came closer and Eren clung to the rock, ready to kick out with his feet should it try to grab him. It grabbed the fish and dipped it in the water a few times then handed it to Eren with open palms.

Eren stared and then, because it seemed impolite, reached forward and took the fish. The creature rose out of the water, eyes darting about and their tail swirling the water behind them.

“Thank you for this…generous gift,” Eren said, cringing. “I’m just going to set it over—ah!”

The fish jumped a little and he dropped it on a sandy portion of the rock.

The creature in the water let out a huffing noise and grabbed it, washing off the sand by dipping it in the water again and extended it to Eren to take.

“I really…I’m really not a big seafood fan,” Eren said shaking his head.

The creature appeared perplexed and when the fish weakly jumped again, they seized it by the tail and smacked it against the rock until it was very dead. Then it lay the dead fish at Eren’s feet, twirling their long tail in the water, looking—in Eren’s eyes—very smug and proud of itself. When Eren continued not understanding, the undulating of their tail ceased and they sank lower into the water, eyes narrowing, blinking a second set of lids.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” Eren said. “Can you speak? Speak?”

They raised out of the water, perking their ears up.

“I’m Eren. Errrren,” Eren repeated. “Eren.”

Slipping a clawed hand out of the water they grabbed the fish and then ripped off its head, pulling out the meat and eating it.

“Ugh!” Eren cried out, disgusted.

They offered the carcass to Eren.

“I don’t want it!”

They shoved it under Eren’s nose and he slapped it away. The creature dove after it.

“Do. You. Speak. English?” Eren shouted. “Parlez-vous français? Habla Español? Uhhh…sprechen sie Deutsch?”

They tore into the fish with those sharp pointed teeth and chewed furiously, mashing the meat and then opened their mouth as wide as possible, coming closer. It offered the masticated meal to Eren.

“EREN,” Eren continued. “No, stop that, I don’t want it.”

The creature slapped the water angrily with its tail.

“It’s no use, I don’t know what you want,” Eren said shrugging his shoulders.

It swallowed the meat and then let out a sharp barking noise at Eren.

“Don’t start that with me,” Eren said crossly.

It puffed up all of its fins, the color changing from a dim blue to a vibrant red, the fins at its ears flaring and rotating towards Eren in a threat display and it barked again. Eren backed away from the edge. It threw the fish at Eren’s head.

“Stop that!” Eren shouted as the fish bounced off of him.

It barked again, letting out several sharp staccato notes and then hissed loudly. Having had enough, Eren hissed back. Taken aback, the creature flattened its fins against its body.

“Yeah, you don’t like that do you?” Eren said and then imitated its bark. “How do you like it when I do it, hm??”

Eren slapped at the water with his hands, imitating the tail.

“Not so funny now is it?” Eren said mockingly.

The creature snorted and then with a sharp flick of its tail, splashed Eren.

Eren sputtered, wiping off his face and then, without warning, he felt his hoodie tugged backwards and a hand clapped over his mouth.

And then he was suffocating.

On fish.

“Oh gross, oh ugh ugh,” Eren spat the fish out of his mouth. “Why’d you do that? I said I didn’t want to eat it, ugh, I’m never going to get that out—hurk,” he retched, but managed to keep his breakfast down.

The creature in the water gave a low watery warble and then flipped backwards in apparent exasperation. It curled up in the sand below Eren’s rock, rolling around in it and burying itself, its colors going from blue to tan and grey as it hid.

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Eren said, leaning over the rock.

He stretched out his fingers and grabbed what was left of the floating fish before a gull could snatch it.

“See? Yummm,” Eren said pretending to eat it.

Two silver eyes opened underwater, looking up at him, the only part distinguishable from the pebbles around it.

“Mmm, so good,” Eren said making exaggerated facial expressions as he bit at the air near the stinking fish. “Yum yum.”

There was a flash and it shook off the sand, circling around the rock, its colors warming to a midnight blue with purple and red tinged fins, looking like a tropical fish.

“Thank you so much for this,” Eren said, indicating the fish. “I’m Eren. EREN. What’s your name?”

It continued making whirlpools. Then, Eren watched it snap its tail, whipping through the water striking a fish. It seized the stunned creature and then placed it next to Eren.

“Wow,” said Eren running a hand through his hair. “What am I going to call you?”

He sat there thinking for several minutes as the creature tried to get him to eat the second fish, scratching at the wet denim.

“Oh,” he said, looking down at his jeans. “How about Levi?”

The creature was busy disemboweling the fish for Eren.

“Me. Eren. You. Levi,” Eren said pointing from himself to Levi.

It paused, fish head hanging out of the corner of its mouth, teeth clamped around the fishbone.

“Me,” Eren repeated, tapping his chest. “Eren.”

The creature put a webbed hand to its own chest.

“Yes! Yes!” Eren cried enthusiastically. “Me. Eren. I am Eren. You, Levi.”

Eren pointed at the creature and its eyes narrowed, eyeing his pointed finger like a weapon.

“Eren!” Eren repeated and the creature pointed to its chest. “No, no, Eren. You Levi.”

It stared.

“Leeeviiii,” Eren said slowly.

And then, the most amazing thing happened, Levi tapped his own chest.

“Yes!” Eren jumped up excitedly. “Yes!”

Levi watched Eren’s dance, his eyes darting back and forth warily, but tail twirling in the water apparently pleased.

“Okay, okay, let’s try again,” Eren said. “Levi.”

Levi hesitantly pointed at himself again.

“Yes!” Eren nodded. “Now…Eren.”

Levi extended his hand at Eren.

“Oh my god, you’re a genius,” Eren sighed happily. “Now if only we could get you to talk. Can you talk? Can you say Leeeviii?”

Levi indicated himself, uncertain.

“No, say it, here use the very tip of your tongue on your teeth and go Leeviii,” Eren said exaggerating the muscles in his mouth.

Levi mimicked him but the only sound that came out was several loud guttural rumbles.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Eren said, putting his chin in his hand as Levi proceeded to rip apart his meal.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff."

Eren didn’t want to leave his new friend, but eventually Levi grew tired from their attempts at communication and got distracted chasing minnows. Soon the sun was high in the sky, Eren’s stomach was rumbling (despite offered fish) and Levi was busy resting curled against the rock, his fins and tail a mottled brown.

“I gotta go get lunch,” Eren informed Levi.

Levi seemed busy snoozing, so Eren carefully stepped away only for Levi to poke his head out of the water.

“I’ll be right back,” Eren reassured him. “I’ll be riiight—ah you don’t understand me anyways.”

Eren continued walking away and Levi let out several sharp noises.

“Hey!” Eren said, turning around. “Quiet, you don’t want others to find you! I’ll be right back!”

An hour later, Eren was in his wetsuit and brought his board and several supplies with him.

“Okay, so I got you this coloring book,” Eren said, hopping up on his favorite rock which, now that the tide was high, was a small island he had to wade to, holding his bag above his head. “See it has pictures. Fish. F-I-S-H.”

He tapped the page.

“Elmo likes fish,” he said turning the page. “And here’s the sun. S-U-N.”

Levi wrinkled his nose.

Eren flipped through the pages, reading each picture aloud and spelling it for Levi. And just when he thought Levi was growing bored, he stretched out a clawed hand for the book.

“You want to see it?” Eren asked excitedly. “Here.”

He handed the coloring book over to Levi.

“Careful now don’t get the pages too wet, or else—no what are you doing? Don’t eat it!”

Levi had ripped the book to shreds and was attempting to eat the pages, bits of Elmo and friends stuck to his tongue. He shuddered and tried to spit it out.

“Yeah, it doesn’t taste so good does it?” Eren said as Levi dived and came back up with a wad of kelp as a palate cleanser, trying to wash the taste of paper out of his mouth. “Here, I got you something you might actually want to eat.”

Eren pulled out a can of tuna.

“Fish. Fiiiish. F-I-S-H. Remember—oh wow you learned that word quick.”

Eren had to hold the can above his head because Levi rose out of the water, propelling himself and grabbing the tin out of Eren’s hands. He bit into it and then made a snorting noise in annoyance.

“It’s not opened yet!” Eren said, grabbing it back and noticing the dent Levi’s sharp teeth had made. “Here.”

He peeled off the lid and offered the contents to Levi. Levi sniffed it hesitantly.

“Fish. Fiiiish.”

Levi scraped some out with his fingers and tasted it. The result was Eren being struck in the head with the tin.

“Ow! Okay! So you—stop splashing me! So you don’t like the canned stuff! Fine I get it! More for me.”

Eren made himself a sandwich with the remaining tuna that he was able to salvage, while Levi appeared amused with the tin. He banged it on the rock, watching little crabs scamper out at the sudden noise. He trapped one under the tin and when he lifted it up the crab was nowhere to be found. Levi turned the tin around to look inside and found the crab hiding there. He ate it noisily, crunching on his treat.

“Ugh, how can you eat that?” Eren asked.

Misunderstanding, Levi offered the remaining claw to Eren.

“No, thank you,” Eren said finishing his sandwich.

Finishing lunch, he grabbed his board. Levi watched him with eager anticipation. Eren did have his snorkeling and scuba gear, but he was a little wary of getting in the water with Levi. Sure Levi had saved him, but he didn’t appear too concerned with the fact that Eren needed air to live.

Yet as Eren paddled out, Levi circled around him excitedly. Then, without warning Levi slid his belly against the bottom of the board, claws gripping the side and he propelled them out further into the ocean.

“Whoa, hold on! Levi! Don’t! I won’t be able to get back! Levi!”

He stopped as the water went from deep blue to a light seagreen, releasing the board and Eren glided along the water’s surface. He looked over the edge.

“It’s a reef!” Eren exclaimed.

Levi chased fish and Eren paddled lazily around the area, admiring the bright colors. He saw an octopus, bright red and pointed at it. Levi swam over and plucked it out of the water for Eren, but it suckered his face and Levi grew frustrated with it and threw it back in the water. Eren spotted a bright lionfish and Levi gave it a wide berth. He grabbed an eel, playing with it as Eren watched amusedly.

Something nudged Eren’s board and he caught sight of a familiar fin.

“Shark!” he shouted, pulling his hands and feet out of the water. “Levi watch out!”

But Levi was busy rubbing his hands over the sharks, petting them on their noses, greeting like an owner might greet their dog after a long day.

“You’re not afraid of much are you?” Eren asked, resting his head on his arms as Levi aggressively rubbed their bellies.

They were out there for well over three hours—Eren lost count, he was too wrapped up in the sights Levi was showing him. Finally, Levi grabbed the board and steered Eren to shore. Eren slipped off the board once they got to the shallows and he could stand. Water up to his chest, Eren waited as Levi swam around him in slow circles.

“This was fun,” he said smiling.

Levi bobbed up and rotated his ears forward, listening to Eren speak.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?” Eren said, hoping Levi understood.

He climbed out of the water, looking back at Levi’s silver eyes as Levi watched him leave.

He spent the entirety of the next day with Levi. This time he brought his snorkel and flippers. Levi pulled one flipper off of Eren’s foot and examined it curiously.

“Yeah, it’s like your fins,” Eren pointed at one of the spiny pointed fins at his side. Levi seemed insulted by the comparison and instead bit into the fin, leaving sharp puncture marks.

“Hey! Hey! That’s expensive! Stop that!” Eren said pulling it out of Levi’s claws.

Levi carried the board out to the reef and this time Eren plunged into the water with Levi. Levi chased the board if it drifted too far away and Eren swam after the octopus they’d seen earlier. When the sharks reappeared, intent on hunting for lunch, Levi circled Eren carefully. He wasn’t afraid of the toothy creatures, but made it abundantly clear they were not allowed near Eren.

It was well after dark when Levi and Eren swam up to the shore. Teeth chattering in the cold water, Eren swept his hair out of his eyes, which were stinging from the salt water. He felt something bump against him and realized it was Levi’s tail against his leg, his head lifting out of the water.

Eren reached out a shaking hand to touch the spines near Levi’s ears. Levi pulled away instinctively, but Eren made contact with his pruney fingers. He followed the line of the fins, carefully avoiding the points and then brushed his hands against the mottled freckles on his temple. Levi leaned closer as well, clawed hands tugging on Eren’s earlobes curiously. Eren felt their chests bump against one another and his heart began hammering loudly. Levi sniffed at Eren’s mouth and they were very close indeed. Eren closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Levi’s own in a gentle kiss.

He realized his error and quickly opened his eyes to gauge Levi’s reaction but Levi was busy pulling seaweed out of Eren’s hair.

“You don’t even know what a kiss is, do you?” Eren snorted as Levi blinked his second set of lids.

Clearly, Levi did not.

There was a sound out on the water just then. Like a low wail. It sent a shiver through Eren’s already chilled body. What frightened him more was the way Levi froze, perking his ears up and listening intently.

“Oh,” Eren said as the noises started again and he recognized them. “It’s just whales. Hey, Levi! Levi! Settle down, it’s just whales! Levi!”

But Levi was off and gone, the moon glinting off his scales as they arced over the waves.

<*>

“No. No no,” Mikasa said, catching Eren leaving the bungalow early the next day. “This was supposed to be a vacation for the three of us and we never get to see you!”

“I—“

“Where do you keep sneaking off to?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you,” Eren said as both she and Armin looked at him expectantly.

“Girlfriend,” Armin mouthed at Mikasa and she nodded.

“Okay, okay, I’ll show you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone! I mean it!”

“Sure,” Mikasa and Armin nodded in agreement but behind Eren’s back they shared an amused glance.

“Oh wow,” said Armin as they made it to Eren’s secret cove. “It’s gorgeous, how’d you find it? Wait, scratch that—are we even allowed to be here? This has to be private property.”

“Levi!” Eren shouted. “Levi!”

“What’re you doing?” Armin asked.

“Uh, I have a friend I meet down here sometimes. It’s hard to explain,” Eren said, scratching the back of his head.

He called a few more times but Levi never showed.

Mikasa and Armin both got on their boards and paddled out.

“Here,” said Eren. “There’s a reef a ways out, let me show you.”

“Eren, this is really far,” Armin said panting as they followed him.

“Yeah, but it’s totally worth it.”

Eren heard a sharp intake of breath as Armin and Mikasa spotted the reef.

“Careful, there’s sharks,” Eren indicated.

“Those are reef sharks,” Armin said. “They’re harmless.”

“Oh,” said Eren.

He still jumped at any sign of silver, hoping it would be Levi, but each time it was only a small fish darting by.

“Are you really that afraid of the sharks?” Armin laughed.

“Ha, you got me, watched too much Jaws as a kid,” Eren laughed, but still frowned.

Where was Levi? Had Eren startled him off with the kiss? Had Levi grown bored with Eren? Was he hurt? Injured?

The next day Levi failed to show and Eren paced the shoreline anxiously.

He woke early the day after that and sat on his favorite rock sadly. He didn’t bother calling for Levi. He curled up on the rock sniffling a little and then fell asleep once more. When he woke, he nearly jumped off his perch. There was Levi, sunning himself on the rock as well, stretched out along Eren, completely out of the water.

“Levi!” Eren exclaimed. “You’re alive!”

He made to hug Levi but Levi responded by diving back into the water.

“Where were you?!” Eren scolded. “I looked everywhere for you!”

Levi slapped his tail impatiently and looked at Eren’s board on shore.

“What you want to go out again?” Eren asked.

Levi slapped his tail some more.

“Okay, alright! I’m getting it! You’re so impatient!”

Eren always felt silly wearing the flippers while on his board, but the board was the fastest way to get out there and he needed the flippers for the reef.

Eren dove into the water and this time Levi clung close to him. Eren reached out as Levi slunk by and gently pulled on his tail. Levi didn’t seem to like that much. He swam up to Eren and tapped on Eren’s mask with a claw.

“Hey!” Eren said around his snorkel.

Then something terrifying happened. Levi puffed up. All of his fins raised like hackles on a wolf and turned a bright scarlet. Eren had seen Levi like this before, but never quite as furious. He hissed at Eren underwater. Eren couldn’t ask what was wrong so he began to swim away backwards from Levi. Levi barked at him underwater, the force sending circular bubbles at him and Eren froze, every inch of his body prickling in fear. This wasn’t some playmate he’d made, this was a strange creature and humanoid though it may be it was dangerous. Sure Levi was capable of empathy and complex thoughts—but Eren had seen him rip the heads off of fish with ease with his sharp teeth and stun animals with his powerful tail. He was not to be trusted. And Eren, damnit, he was always so trusting! Levi hissed again and then Eren saw it out of the corner of his eye—a flash of a fin!

And then something grabbed his ankle and pulled him down. Water flooded his snorkel and Eren held his breath. Eren kicked out and connected with something and felt his flipper ripped off. He struggled for the surface and saw Levi speed past him down to face his attacker below.

Eren ripped off his goggles and swam for his board. As he climbed on he could see the flurry of tails slapping at one another.

“Levi!” Eren called, seeing the bright flash of color.

The two creatures were locked in battle and Eren had no desire to see what would happen should Levi lose. He paddled furiously for shore, the mess of fins and clawed hands becoming smaller and smaller until he couldn’t see anything.

Eren sat out on his rock with his binoculars searching the water until late in the night, but Levi never returned.

What was that thing? Was Levi okay?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!

When Eren returned the next day, he walked out to his rock and found his missing flipper sitting there weighed down with rocks. He picked it up and a few small dead fish slid out along with the sand. Eren sighed.

“Levi!” he called.

He continued shouting, but his friend never appeared.

Finally, he grabbed his backpack, hoisted it on and started paddling out to the reef. He sat on the board and got out his binoculars, but saw nothing. Setting them down, he scanned the water without them, but while it was bright out, the horizon was hazy. He reached for them again and found them missing.

“What the—?” he said in confusion.

It wasn’t until he heard the telltale sound of teeth against plastic that he sighed.

“Stop that, Levi!” he chastised, turning around. “You’re not supposed to—“

He stopped because the creature he was talking to was most definitely _not_ Levi.

“AH!” he shouted, kicking out.

It let out a similar shriek of surprise, dropping the binoculars.

“No! You’re not supposed to submerge them!” Eren said reaching for them.

It grabbed the strap and pulled back angrily.

“Those are mine, leggo!” Eren said tugging on his side.

It hissed at him angrily and when Eren hissed back it growled and they were reduced to a tug of war over the binoculars. Eren lost when it slapped him with a very orange tail.

“Ow!” he complained, but they were busy gloating over their victory.

He watched the new creature put the wide lenses to their eye and look at Eren then balk in surprise.

“You’re holding them the wrong way,” Eren said, raising his eyebrow. “Here, let me show you—stop that! I just want to show you—“

He grabbed the strap and they struggled. Eren felt the creature lurch forward, nearly ripping off his arm and pulling his board with them. Eren dropped the strap to the binoculars and rubbed at his shoulder. He was surprised when the creature circled back and nudged his board.

“You want to show me something?” he asked.

It handed the binoculars to him, then Eren’s board began moving forward, cresting the waves at a speedy pace. It kept parallel with the shoreline and then moved inward. He could see a tan house with a red tin roof that had several fish hatcheries along the shoreline. It released the board and he drifted into the calm lagoon.

“Where’d you take me?” he asked his new friend, who was busy trying to divine the secrets of his binoculars again.

He felt something brush the bottom of his foot and he looked down to see a familiar shape.

“Levi!” he shouted.

Levi continued circling lazily around his board in that way he would whenever Eren appeared afraid of the sharks on the reef.

“Levi it’s me!” Eren called down to him, but Levi continued his patrol. “What is this place?”

He pulled himself up out of the water onto the docks and looked around. The new merperson, which now that it was half out of the water Eren could see had bright orange fins, was busy rifling through the contents of his bag, throwing unnecessary items into the water, which were placed back onto Eren’s board by Levi’s webbed hand. Eren sat down on the docks and put his feet in the water.

“Hey!” someone shouted.

Eren looked up to see a figure running out of the house. He followed their progression as they tripped over their flip flops and picked themselves up.

“You can’t be here! This is private property!” they called.

Eren stared.

“Get away from the water! It’s dangerous!” they waved and Eren looked at the new merperson for clarification but it looked just as confused as he was.

Eren took his bag from the new merperson and began packing up all of his belongings quickly.

“Get away from there!” they gasped, rushing up.

Eren was so distracted by their arrival that he failed to notice the creature’s eyes which were still focused on the binoculars they had claimed. The orange creature launched itself out of the water to sit next to Eren on the docks.

“Oh. Oh no. Uh…look I’m sure you have a lot of questions and I can explain, but right now I need you to—“ the newcomer wheezed.

“You’re not using them right,” Eren chastised the orange merperson as Levi circled beneath him. “Here, look through them the other way and pick something in the distance.”

It picked Hanji and then dropped the binoculars in surprise.

“Haha, now here, look at that gull,” Eren said pointing and they did, fanged mouth hanging open.

“Who…are you?” the owner of the docks asked, scratching their head.

“Oh, hi! I’m Eren. Sorry, I didn’t know this was private property, I’m leaving.”

“I’m Dr. Hanji,” they said, trailing off as Eren stood up. “I’m sorry, you seem very…who are you exactly?”

“Eren…Jaeger. I’m here on vacation. What is this place?”

“How’d you get here? I have electric fences along the perimeter…” they trailed off as they caught sight of Eren’s board. “I see. Right, I don’t want to upset you, but I’m going to need you to step away from the edge of the water.”

Eren did so and Hanji grabbed a spray bottle and sprayed it at the orange merperson. It hissed and then slid off the dock in annoyance. Putting their arm out in front of Eren’s chest protectively, Dr. Hanji aimed the spray bottle at Levi’s form in the water. He slowly moved away from the edge of the dock.

“You have no idea how much danger you were just in,” Dr. Hanji said seriously. “The female is relatively harmless if…destructive, but M1 is extremely aggressive.”

“M1? You mean Levi?” Eren asked in confusion.

Hanji opened and closed their mouth repeatedly like a fish on land.

“You gave them names?” they finally managed.

“Just Levi. Hey Levi!” Eren called and Levi turned about in the blue green water at the sound of his name.

“I can’t believe you gave them names,” Hanji said putting their head in their hands.

“Why? What do you call them?”

“I call them by their assigned codes. Oh my god you have just set me back years in my work. Now I have to account for your influence and…” they trailed off looking horror struck.

“I…okay?”

The orange merperson whined from the middle of the lagoon, clearly annoyed she had been interrupted from her investigation of Eren’s pack.

“What exactly are you studying here?” Eren asked because the doctor was clearly distraught.

“Them,” Dr. Hanji pointed.

<*>

“I was hired by an anonymous group, funded by a man whose name I cannot mention, to study the pod. When I first came on there were nearly two dozen of them. That was almost five…seven years ago? They travel with the whales and then come here to mate and spawn. Now it’s just the three of them.”

“Three?” Eren asked.

“Yes, two males and one female.”

Dr. Hanji tapped a button on their laptop and the cameras on the screen focused on each one in real time. There was the third merperson lounging on a rock Eren had been staring at only moments earlier! Only when Hanji pointed him out could Eren see through the camouflage. Half of his body was the exact color as the water, the other half the same color as the sand. The steady blink of a second set of lids and the slight pink at the edges of his gills were the only indicators that there was a living creature there.

“I’ve titled the first male A3M1Q…” Hanji listed a very long alphanumeric that Eren couldn’t quite follow. “I gave each family group a letter and then their sex followed by latitude and longitude of their first discovery.”

“I just call him Levi. Like the jeans,” Eren shrugged.

“Ha…” Hanji pressed a hand to their temples. “You can’t just call them human names, Eren.”

“Why not?”

“Because that means you’re anthropomorphizing them! You’re giving them human characteristics and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they are decidedly not human.”

“What’s her name,” Eren pointed at a picture of the orange merperson.

“I2F1—“

“Isabel. Done. Easy.”

Dr. Hanji snorted in annoyance, pushing their glasses up their nose.

“And the second male is F5M2R1L6—“

“Famerl,” Eren said confidently.

“That’s not…that’s not a name.”

“Famerlan. Fam—no the M isn’t working there. Farlan! Farlan.”

Dr. Hanji looked less than amused.

“M1 was the first of the seirenes homo I encountered—“

“Sorry, what?”

“Seirenes homo—“

“Can’t you just call them mermaids or merpersons if you wanna be all PC about it?” Eren asked.

“—first of the seirenes homo I encountered. He was badly injured and ill tempered. I was able to bandage some of his wounds, but he has not liked me ever since.”

“Levi was hurt?” Eren asked.

“Yes, it looked like he was caught in a net—I’m guessing a tuna net—and it wrapped around his side.”

They clicked the cameras and it zoomed in on Levi’s side. Eren had never noticed that some of his fins were frayed at the edges. Levi must have tucked them down whenever Eren saw him.

“He also has an array of bite marks I’m guessing were from an orca. Right here.”

Hanji traced their fingers along the screen in an arc against his midriff.

“You’re so tough,” Eren said to the footage of Levi, who was agitatedly swirling around Eren’s surfboard.

“He is,” Hanji nodded seriously. “He is also aggressive and violent. He has driven me away from the female more than once. I don’t go in the water when he’s there.”

That reminded Eren.

“I was out on the reef and something attacked me!” Eren said. “It grabbed my ankle, ripped off my flipper and tried to drown me! I only got away because Levi saved me.”

“Ah, that would be M2,” Hanji nodded, now glad that Eren understood the dangers they faced. “He’s very curious. Pulled me under one time just so he could get a look at my sneakers. Scared the crap out of me, but once he got what he wanted he released me. I also suspect he’s the one who broke into my hatchery. Very crafty that one.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to anthropomorphize them,” Eren grinned at Dr. Hanji.

“Well, no, but look, do you see him?” they pointed at the screen. “Watch. He’s been like this since before you arrived. He’s stalking this bird.”

Farlan was relaxed against the rock still, but his eyes were trained on the sky. His body blended in seamlessly with his surroundings. Then like a clap of thunder, his tail whipped through the air stunning the bird and when it fell both he and Isabel descended on it, leaving the water a mix of feathers and blood. Levi continued circling the pair. Eren’s stomach lurched.

“See, they’re not new pets for you Eren,” Dr. Hanji said cautiously. “They’re dangerous.”

“Levi saved me. Twice now!” Eren protested. “He and the other one were battling in the water. It was really scary.”

“Ah, they do that. M2 will challenge M1 from time to time and they’ll fight, but it’s harmless. Ah, look they’re going at it now.”

Levi and Farlan were grappling at one another, striking out at each other’s tails, grabbing each other at the elbows and trying to roll the other.

“Whoever shows their belly to the sky loses,” Hanji explained as Levi and Farlan grew bored with the game. “The female will do the same thing but M1 always lets her win.”

Eren watched as Isabel joined the fray and Levi went limp and belly up in the water his face flat as Isabel gloated, her laugh coming out in little bubbles. Eren grinned as Levi bobbed in the water like a dead fish for a moment before diving down beneath the cameras.

“Levi is M1, right? He’s the first male? Does that make him like the alpha of the merfolk?” Eren asked excitedly as Levi hunted down another fish.

“No—what? No. There are no alphas. They’re a family unit. M2 and F1 are a mated pair.”

“Like swans? Or penguins?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to make that sort of assumption when I only have these three to compare it to. I need a larger data pool.”

“Where’s Levi’s mate?” Eren asked.

“He’s never had one as far as I can tell. He’s the protector of this group. He gets to the area at least two weeks before they do, scouting out any potential threat. At least now he lets me near the female, but if I try to touch her, he’ll throw up his threat display.”

“What are they saying to each other?” Eren asked watching their faces as they interacted on the screen.

They were family, like him and Mikasa and Armin. They understood one another. They communicated. They loved.

“No idea,” Hanji sighed. “I’ve been studying the seirenes homo language for years and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Half of the sounds they make are inaudible to the human ear.”

Dr. Hanji looked over at Eren’s face as he stared at the monitors in awe.

“Wanna hear something?” Hanji asked, nudging his elbow.

“Sure?” Eren asked.

They clicked the laptop and a high pitched sound echoed and bounced off of the walls of the underwater basement.

“What was that?” Eren asked.

“That…is M1, your ‘Levi’s’ _name_. That’s the female calling him.”

“Wow,” Eren gasped.

He walked over to the underwater window to watch them with his own eyes. Levi’s tail could barely be seen through the grime crusted glass.

“I’ve tried communicating with them through the underwater speakers but they really don’t seem to like it,” Hanji explained as Eren watched Levi bend backwards and swim in a loop, his clawed fingers brushing against his own tail.

“Can you play it?” Eren asked Hanji.

“Yes, but last time I did that he savaged my oxygen tanks.”

Hanji hit a button and it began to play on repeat. Levi swam over to the window. Eren put his hand against the glass.

“Is that you Levi?” Eren asked, knowing Levi couldn’t hear him. “Is that your name?”

Levi tapped his hand to his chest in recognition.

Hanji dropped their clipboard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like this, please leave comments or kudos!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji goes over their previous experiments to get the merfolk to communicate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Tracking tag is: #fic: merfluff
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!

“Do you understand what this means?” Hanji shouted after Eren as he left the underwater lab and walked back out to the docks. “Never before have the seirenes homo showed any sign of self-recognition! And M1 has never shown _any_ understanding of human communication before—”

“What do you mean? Of course Levi knows who he is! Levi is very smart!” Eren said confidently.

“You don’t seem to understand what a big deal this is!” Hanji pushed up their glasses. “I have been trying to communicate with them for years!”

“How?” Eren asked, tilting his head to the side.

Eren should not have asked.

Experiment #1 occurred after initial data collection. Hanji set three different painted signs: one with horizontal stripes (Sign A), one with vertical stripes (Sign B), and one with diagonal stripes (Sign C).

“The goal was to see if they could make informed decision making. I switch the location of the signs every day. Then I would hold up a marker with identical stripes. They have to go to the sign and when they do they receive a reward, in this case, fish from my hatchery. If they don’t, well then they don’t get a treat.”

Hanji played video of Isabel racing to complete the task, but didn’t always seem to grasp the concept that food was at a different location. Farlan was the one to make the connection. Levi appeared uninterested.

“Soon they were completing tasks like this with 100% accuracy. And that’s only after a day. Of course, there was a setback after one of them broke into the hatchery. The great Fish Heist of 2012.”

There was no video of the Fish Heist. Hanji had been in the middle of switching out the cameras. Very convenient for their fish thieves.

Experiment #2 was to see if the merfolk would respond to a series of tones. One tone meant: Go to Sign “A”, another to Sign “B”, and so forth. Hanji would play a sequence of seven (eg: A-A-B-C-B-B-A) Isabel was exceptionally good at this, diving back and forth between signs with speedy grace, pirouetting to tap each sign and then spinning out of the water like a dervish to take the fish treat. Levi showed no interest.

Experiment #3 was an attempt to communicate with the merfolk using their own language. Hanji’s secret benefactor paid to have an expert linguist decode the high pitched whistles and barks of the merfolk and sent Hanji several files to play for them. One was supposed to be, “Make noise for fish.” Experiment #3 was mostly considered a failure because Levi ripped out the speakers in an attempt to make the orders and commands stop.

Experiment #4 was a work in progress.

“Then I tried to teach them sign language, which has been used successfully to communicate with primates before but…” Hanji sighed. “M1 refuses to engage and only F1 has picked up any words.”

Isabel put her hand to her mouth, fingers pinched.

“Yeah, you sure learned that one real quick,” Hanji muttered.

“What’s that mean?” Eren asked.

“Food,” Hanji said rolling their eyes, opening up the hatchery and pulling out a fish with her gloved hand and throwing it for Isabel.

Isabel caught the fish excitedly and shoved it in her mouth, the tail still flipping. She made another motion excitedly, pressing the tips of her fingers together.

“What’s that one mean?”

“More,” Hanji said irritably, eyebrow twitching. “No, no more.”

The problem it seemed is that beyond food the merfolk wanted nothing to do with Hanji or any other humans.

Farlan came over and motioned for food. Hanji threw him fish and he brought it over to Isabel as a present.

“You try,” Hanji said and simultaneously motioned to Levi.

Levi reacted by slapping his tail against a rock indifferent that Hanji was addressing him.

“Levi!” Eren called. Then to Hanji, “Like this?”

He motioned for food to Levi. Levi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Levi! Food?” Eren called, dangling a fish out for him to take.

“Watch it!” Hanji said as Farlan ripped it out of Eren’s hands, nearly pulling him into the water. Hanji held onto Eren’s wetsuit and pulled him back on the deck. Farlan dropped this fish too in front of Isabel.

“Ouch,” Eren said rubbing his shoulder.

Isabel devoured her meal and then nuzzled at Farlan to show her appreciation. They turned sideways, bellies touching and coasting along the surface of the water.

“Now you know how difficult it is,” Hanji said, locking the fish hatch up tight and placing the keys in her pocket. “I’ve been doing this for years, but I only get a brief two-and-a-half-month period to work with them.”

“Why only that long?” Eren asked distractedly as Isabel and Farlan slowly spun in the water, their tails entwining.

“Well, as I said they follow the whale pods except to come here and mate—Wait! There they go!” Hanji jumped up excitedly and pointed at Farlan and Isabel.

Eren couldn’t exactly see what he was looking for. There was just a great deal of splashing as the two tails slapped the water and twisted around one another.

“It’s happening!” Hanji bounced excitedly, tapping on their tablet to get the cameras to zoom in.

“What’s happening?” Eren asked, putting his hand over his eyes and squinting over the horizon at the twisting figures.

“They’re mating!” Hanji beamed.

“Oh!” Eren’s mouth fell open and then he covered his eyes and looked away. “We can’t look at that!”

“Well it’s not like the merfolk have the same taboos about sex that we do,” Hanji said, laughing at him. “And this is just the tail dance part. They have a whole ritual before sex. That’s why they eat so much, to build up energy.”

“I’m not watching! I’m going to give them some privacy!” Eren said covering his eyes.

He felt a tap at his leg and looked down.

Levi pinched his fingers together and pointed to his mouth, the fins by his face tilted forward and looking hopeful.

“You want food too?” Eren asked excitedly and mimicked the motion. He took Hanji’s keyring from them and opened up the hatchery.

Hanji gaped and then hit a record button on their tablet.

“Hanji’s log, March 31st 2015\. An outsider to the mission has made contact with the pod and has already made great strides in communicating with subject M1 whom he has dubbed ‘Levi.’

“More,” Levi indicated and Eren responded by giving him more.

“More details to follow,” Hanji said, shutting off their recorder.

Eren tossed the second fish to Levi and he caught it and then proceeded to rip it to shreds and then offered the portions to Eren.

“I’m not hungry,” Eren shook his head.

Levi spiraled out of the water and onto the deck and proffered the fish to Eren.

“I don’t need any!” Eren laughed.

Hanji let out a gasp and reached for the spray bottle and sprayed Levi in the face. He let out a hiss and then fell back in the water, glaring at them.

“I don’t want them to think it’s okay to be on the docks,” Hanji said, hands tight around the spray bottle.

“What’s in there?” Eren asked as Levi continued to make a face trying to get the substance out of his mouth.

“Oh. It’s my homemade hot sauce. They don’t like it,” Hanji said, spraying it into their mouth.

“Can I try some?” Eren asked.

“Oh, sure!” Hanji said and Eren opened his mouth.

“Tasty!” Eren smacked his mouth as Levi let out a warning growl at Hanji.

“Yeah, I have it with my nachos.”

Levi continued growling and Eren waved him off.

“Stop that, you, Hanji is my friend.”

Levi sunk into the water blowing angry bubbles.

They watch the dance of brightly colored fins in the distance, sitting on the edge of the dock for the next half hour. Eren dangled his feet in the water and Levi continued his laps around the lagoon, turning his belly to Eren so that he tickled the bottom of Eren’s feet with his glinting scales.

“Levi’s coloring is so pretty, don’t you think?” Eren asked Hanji, curling his toes as Levi brushed against his feet again. “He can choose so many colors, but I like these ones best.”

“They only use the bright colors during mating season,” Hanji said leaning over and handing back his binoculars.

“Wait—you don’t he thinks I’m—you don’t think Levi thinks that I—“

“No,” Hanji chuckled.

“Because he brought me fish—“

“He treats you the same way he treats F1. He brings her fish and will even chew it for her when she can’t. He basically thinks you’re a big finless idiot who can’t hunt for himself.”

Eren smiled as Levi passed by again.

“How do they even mate?” Eren asked, wrinkling his nose at the thought.

“Oh, they have their sex organs hidden by their ventral fins.”

Hanji tapped their tablet to show Eren and he squinted at the picture.

“AH!” Eren shouted, pulling his feet out of the water. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I probably touched them!”

Levi paused his swimming to look up out of the water at Eren, trying to discern the cause of his alarm.

Hanji laughed, a loud belly laugh that made Eren flush up to his ears.

“No, they’re well protected by their fins, don’t worry.”

“Oh…”

Eren returned his feet to the water and was nearly pulled in again as Farlan grabbed his feet. They hadn’t even noticed the mating dance had finished and the curious blue-finned creature had snuck up on them without warning. Eren let out a yell and Hanji seized his suit again and pulled him back. Levi hissed loudly and slapped at Farlan with his tail. Farlan let out a hiss back.

“No, it’s okay! It’s okay!” Eren said, putting out his hands. “He just startled me, is all. You can look! See? Go ahead!”

Eren held out his foot for Farlan to see. Levi let out a continuous warning growl as Farlan hesitantly approached and poked Eren’s toes with his clawed hands. Eren wiggled his toes and Farlan blanched, ears going back and he ducked back below the water to view them from the side. Eren continued wiggling them and Farlan pinched his pinkie toe delicately and then pulled it out to the side, eyes darting back and forth.

“Here,” Eren said, leaning forward to touch his toes. “This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had roast beef and this little piggy had none, and this little piggy went wee-wee-wee all the way home.”

Farlan mimicked Eren’s face, fangs on display.

“Wee-wee-wee,” Eren repeated and Farlan attempted to replicate the sound but it instead came out as a series of whistles.

“I don’t think their vocal cords can make human phonemes,” Hanji explained as Farlan continued to mimic and failed. “And we can’t even grasp half of their language because it’s out of our range of hearing. That’s why I think that expensive linguist failed.”

“Eren!” Eren called to Farlan, pointing at his chest. “I am Eren.”

Farlan made a noise with a click in the middle of it.

“Close enough, I guess—oh how do I sign my name?”

“Well in ASL you would just refer to yourself for ‘me/I’ in conversation unless you had a nickname, but yours would be E-R-E-N.” Hanji signed each letter individually.

“E-R-E-N,” Eren signed happily.

Farlan ignored this and went back to messing with his toes, perplexed by their structure.

“Levi! E-R-E-N!”

Levi watched Eren’s hands fumble through the motions, alert, but keeping a watchful eye on Farlan.

“Eren! E-R-E-N!”

Levi held up his hand and attempted the motions, but became stuck on N as his thumb couldn’t pass quickly through the webbing between his digits. Still! He managed it!

“Did you see!” Eren asked Hanji excitedly. “Did you—ow!”

He looked down to see Isabel chewing on his toes with her sharp teeth. She looked unhappy with the taste.

“You all need a better way of interacting with the world than biting things first,” Eren said grumpily, rubbing his sore toe.

Farlan abandoned Eren’s toes to hook his arms under Isabel’s and they floated away from the dock, tails entwining again. Eren watched them go fondly.

“They’ll repeat the tail dance a few more times before they leave for somewhere more private to lay their eggs.”

“Where do they go?” Eren asked eagerly, because he wanted to see what little merfolk looked like.

“I don’t know,” Hanji confessed.

“Oh,” said Eren looking discouraged.

“But I have an idea…do you wanna see?” Hanji asked, turning an excited face to Eren.

“Yes,” he blurted out.

<*>

“Previous attempts to tag the merfolk have been unsuccessful,” Hanji shouted over the roar of the jeep as they sped around the corners of a dirt road at a reckless speed that had Eren’s stomach churning. “My predecessor tagged one only for us to find it in the belly of a shark. If a subject is tagged they will do anything to rid themselves of it, including ripping it out of their earlobe or taking a chunk out of their tail. Obviously, we’d rather not harm them. So I tried to introduce a tracker to F1 as a part of a game. I fitted one onto a watch and gave it to her and then followed their movements during a mating period.”

They squealed to a halt, Eren nearly smacking his head on the dash and Hanji leapt out of the window, not even bothering to open the door. They ignored a WARNING! sign and stepped over and under barbed wire, not bothering to help Eren.

Walking briskly they called over their shoulder as Eren struggled to keep up in his bare feet, “The tracker stopped moving and F1 reappeared without the watch, so I figured that she had rid herself of it. Maybe she grew bored or maybe M1 removed it for her, but here is where I found it.”

In the middle of the island?

Hanji stopped at the top of a rocky hill and waited, hands on hips for Eren to gingerly make his way up.

“Here?” Eren asked, looking at the rock.

Hanji pointed down and Eren looked over the edge.

“Hope you’re not afraid of heights,” Hanji grinned.

Eren looked over the edge and his stomach, already agitated from Hanji’s driving, lurched. He leaned back and sucked in a breath before daring to look again. Straight down the rocky cliff lay a beautiful pool of azure waters. A small spring carved down the edge of the rock cliff opposite them like a silk scarf and twisting vines dangled down like green fingers.

“The locals call it The Titan’s Eye.”

Eren could only marvel at the sight, his eyes wide and mirroring the water below. After several long seconds of silence as he took in the breath-taking view, Eren looked for a path down.

“How do we…?” he motioned, because he wanted to get a clearer view of the pure pool.

Hanji clapped Eren on the back, nearly upsetting his shaky balance.

“Ever tried BASE jumping before?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Farlan and Isabel have been mating for years and have yet to produce any lil merbabies T_T


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren prepares to explore the Titan's Eye and makes progress communicating with the merfolk via ASL.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Tracking tag is: #fic: merfluff
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> \--
> 
> EDIT: I forgot to link the fanart people have drawn for this fic! First and adorable one of Levi and his fish head by kionem, [HERE](http://kionem.tumblr.com/post/125792618790/look-at-it-look-at-this-piece-of-shit-and-i-mean). And then this cute art by kitzuhunted with mer!Levi and Eren on his surfing board, [HERE](http://kitzuhunted.tumblr.com/post/129524781801/fan-art).

It was late in the day when Eren got back to the bungalow. Hanji drove him and after a while, he became used to the dizzying turns they took over the backroads.

“Where were you?” Mikasa asked sleepily, looking very comfortable in her beach chair.

“Have you two moved at all since I left you?” Eren asked.

“I rolled over,” Armin said, his voice muffled into his towel.

“Oh, right,” Mikasa said lazily, rolling onto her belly. “Can you get my shoulders, Eren?”

Eren sighed.

“It’s vacation, Eren,” Mikasa explained, yawning.

“Hey, Armin, can I borrow your laptop?”

“Erennn,” Armin whined. “It’s a nice day, the rain finally quit and you’re going to sit on a computer all day?”

“Thanks!” Eren called, already on the porch of the bungalow.

He turned the machine on and quickly signed onto Skype.

[Eren:] hey you there?

[Marco:] hi! how is your vacation?

[Eren:] can we video chat?

[Marco:] uhhh, sure, why?

But Eren had already hit the call button. Marco answered but put up his finger indicating Eren should wait as he fumbled with his hearing aid.

“Hi!” Marco waved.

Eren could see Jean, Marco’s roommate, behind him eating cereal in his boxers.

“Ask him if Mikasa is wearing a bikini!” Jean shouted, mouth full.

“What’s up?” Marco asked.

“I need to know everything about sign language that you can teach me,” Eren begged.

Marco’s mouth dropped into a little ‘o.’

“That might take some time…” Marco said, looking at Eren with some bemusement.

“Just start with the basics. Look I already know ‘food’ and ‘more’ and how to spell my name! E-R-E-N! Just teach me something useful like how do I spell fish?”

“Is it a black bikini?” Jean called in the background.

“Hold on, hold on, slow down, I can’t get all of that,” Marco put his hands up. “Can you type too?”

[Eren:] how do I spell fish in ASL?

“How do I spell fish?” he asked out loud.

“Eren,” Marco said, smiling a little. “ASL isn’t just fingerspelling. It’s not just a way of translating English into sign language, it is its own language.”

“Oh,” said Eren, a little dumbfounded.

“But I have some time. I can teach you a few things.”

Eren beamed.

Mikasa and Armin enjoyed the sun outside. Or tried to. They kept being interrupted by Eren.

“Hey guys, wanna get our SCUBA certification tomorrow?” he shouted from the window.

Armin gave a thumbs up, not moving his head from where he was sunning.

“Okay, I signed us up! Where’s Dad’s credit card? We have to rent tanks! Oh I found it.”

There was a flurry as Eren kicked up sand running up to them with measuring tape, checking their foot sizes to rent flippers. Then more sand as he ran back into the bungalow.

“Tanks and gear rented! Oh hey guys! Do you know if there are any BASE jumping trainers around here?”

“I feel like we should be concerned,” Armin said as Mikasa brushed sand off her cheek.

When they finally got up, Eren had resumed his talk with Marco.

“Fish—“ Eren said moving his hand back and forth and forward like the creature through water. “Ocean—“ he moved his hands like waves on the horizon. “Beautiful—“ he moved it across his face.

“Eren?” Mikasa called, stumbling a little blind in the kitchen. “What are you up to?”

“My god it’s red,” Jean sighed appreciatively.

“Hold on, our pizza is here,” Marco informed him as his phone buzzed and lit up brightly.

“Okay, I have to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” said Eren.

Marco stepped away.

“Hey Mikasa,” Jean waved.

“Nice boxers,” she snorted, shutting the laptop.

<*>

Armin and Mikasa were content to let Eren continue on his secret project. He often grew obsessive over one thing or another and they’d long learned to let it run its course. But when they came home from an exhausting day of scuba diving to find an ash blonde woman with a severe expression tapping her Jimmy Choos, they became concerned.

“Oh you must be the lawyer!” Eren said, rushing over to meet them. “Here, follow me in here—“

He held the door for her and led her to the kitchenette table. She pulled out her briefcase and Eren shooed Mikasa and Armin from the room. They didn’t hear what happened next but it was a good hour of paper signing and then Eren was ushering her out the door.

“Have a nice flight!” he said waving at her as she walked to her town car.

“Oh, I will, he sends me in the private jet, ta!” she waved.

“What was that?” Armin asked, now very much concerned.

“Oh just a basic NDA,” Eren shrugged.

Armin and Mikasa looked at each other as Eren grabbed his bag, stuffing it full of brand new toothbrushes, candy bars, and a volleyball.

<*>

Eren had seen quite an uptick in his vacation schedule. Instead of sun and sand it was baking on the docks trying to teach the merfolk new signs. He taught them “see” and “go” and he tried to teach them a few more, but it wasn’t easy to tie esoteric concepts to their environment. “Play” was a hard sign for the merfolk to decipher at first. It was even harder for them to master the motion. They weren’t that great at tucking their fingers down separately, much less fold in their center fingers (Eren would never be able to get them to perform the Vulcan salute). But “ball” was one they picked up very quickly so “ball” was often used for “play” even when Eren’s volleyball wasn’t anywhere to be found. And they taught him things too. “Play” to the merfolk was to grab your own tail and look over your fins at another. As Eren didn’t have fins, he grabbed his toes and then they would play games. Well, they would pass the ball around, Levi watching at a distance as Eren ran along the docks catching tosses from Isabel and Farlan. One day, Eren had tapped his toes for play and Farlan leapt out of the water and grabbed him, pulling him under. When he surfaced, Farlan tugged him down again. Hanji ran out to help him, but it was Levi who chased Farlan off. The merfolk version of play wasn’t quite as fun to Eren, who spent the rest of the day coughing up seawater. Farlan brought him a fish as an apology under Levi’s watchful eye.

And instead of Mai Tais and daiquiris it was oral hygiene. Hanji revealed that Isabel (F1) often had trouble chewing and swallowing food. Eren wouldn’t have believed the scientist until he witnessed it himself. Isabel would float by on her side whining loudly and clutching at her face. Levi or Farlan would shred food for her and she would gingerly pick at it. Not that her sore jaw would stop her from asking for food or chocolate. Eren had discovered the merfolk loved chocolate. Hanji was not happy about him introducing refined sugar to their diet.

“Chocolate could be poisonous to them!” Hanji scowled as Isabel signed for more.

More than chocolate they loved melons. Eren grabbed a cantaloupe for them to sample, but they mistook it for the volleyball. When he finally retrieved it from them, he opened it and handed out slices. Unfortunately they took that to mean the volleyball also held delicious fruit inside and after that no volleyball was safe and Hanji had a whole garbage bag full of deflated ones, punctured by Levi with a sharp rock.

“Brushy brushy brushy,” Eren said to his audience.

Farlan always came out whenever Eren introduced a new item. Most of his time was spent camouflaged against a rock sneaking up on birds (or in one case, a poor rodent) or continuing the tail dance with Isabel but when Eren brought out a new item, he was there in a flash of silver and blue scales.

“What are you doing?” Hanji asked, sitting up on their tower.

Hanji never came down near the water whenever Eren performed his own “experiments,” preferring instead to sit up high on a lifeguard-style chair where they could better observe. Or at least that was the reason they gave and Eren didn’t question it.

“Brushy brushy brushy!” Eren sang, holding out a toothbrush and scrubbing at his teeth.

He found that if he turned it into a song the merfolk would respond in kind. They loved to sing. At night when the moon came out, Eren could hear them echoing across the water, the sound bouncing off of the rocks in the lagoon. He never heard Levi.

Isabel came over and watched him.

“Brushy?” Eren asked, moving the toothbrush up and down his teeth. He held out a toothbrush for her to take but Farlan intercepted, sniffing it and examining the bristles. He then held the handle and watched Eren mime brushing his teeth.

“Brushy,” Eren said and Farlan blinked his second set of lids.

Eren handed a toothbrush to an eager Isabel and she took it, sniffing it eagerly.

“I just thought,” Eren said to Hanji. “That maybe the cause of Izzy’s jaw pain is a toothache. So we’re going to learn to brush our teeth today to prevent cavities! Brushy brushy!”

Farlan moved the brush up and down.

“Yes! Yay for Farlan! Brushy brushy!”

Isabel shoved the plastic end in her mouth and bit down hard, then yowled in pain clutching at her jaw.

“It’s definitely a toothache,” Hanji agreed. “But I haven’t been able to get a good look at it. See if you can get a picture.”

“Sick?” Eren signed at Isabel as she whined in pain.

They didn’t always understand the signs Eren made, but they understood the faces he made or at least he hoped they did. She nodded.

He motioned, “Let me see?” but she was reluctant so Eren opened his mouth wide.

She opened hers too in response.

“Yah,” Eren said, mouth still open. “Ah an ee ih.”

Isabel startled him by hooking her thumbs in his mouth and sniffing, looking for food. She appeared disappointed.

“Let me see?” Eren motioned again and Isabel opened up her mouth.

He fumbled with Hanji’s waterproof camera and quickly snapped a picture that Hanji brought up on their tablet.

“That’s a good one, Eren!” Hanji praised. “Now I can send this off to our specialist.”

Eren beamed and then resumed brushing his teeth.

“Brushy brushy?” he asked Izzy, but she was bored with the weird plastic bristle toy. “Farlan? Brushy brushy?”

But Farlan was gone, hiding the toothbrush wherever it was he squirreled away all of the items Eren brought him.

“Levi?” Eren asked. “Brushy brushy?”

Levi was being his usual aloof self. He rarely approached Eren while Isabel and Farlan were there. And he refused to engage in any of Hanji’s experiments. Eren was hopeful, though, that the standoffish merman would come around. After all, he had appeared very interested when Eren tried to teach them all new signs for Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Wife, Husband and Baby. He wasn’t sure they understood the signs because he wasn’t sure if merfolk knew their parents. Surprisingly, Isabel eagerly picked up baby…which then led to another tail dance mating session. While Eren and Hanji were distracted, trying to get more footage of the dance, Eren caught Levi practicing to himself. He quickly disappeared under the water when he saw Eren watching him.

“Levi?” Eren called again. “Brushy brushy?”

Levi dove off his rock and then when he resurfaced he was holding a stiff, weird looking bit of coral, or maybe it was seaweed, Eren couldn’t tell. Levi bit off the top of the plant and spit it out, then rubbed the plant fibers against his teeth. Eren stared and then broke into a wide grin.

“Yes! Brushy brushy!” Eren said excitedly, rubbing at his teeth.

It looked like the merfolk had their own version of a toothbrush.

Levi swam closer and held out the plant to Eren. Eren took it and gave Levi the toothbrush instead. The plant was incredibly bitter but Eren put on a brave face. Isabel watched him do so with a disgusted expression.

“And you wonder why you have cavities,” Eren told her as Levi scrubbed at his teeth with the new brush.

“Goggles brush,” Levi motioned.

The merfolk were very curious about Hanji’s glasses and Eren’s snorkeling goggles so he asked Marco how to sign for them and now it was their sign for Hanji.

“What’s he saying about me?” Hanji asked.

“He wants you to brush your teeth? I think?” Eren asked.

“Goggles brush,” Levi motioned again.

“I think he’s telling you that your breath stinks, Hanji,” Eren laughed and Hanji sniffed their own breath and frowned.

And instead of surfing, it was cave diving. Hanji pulled the gate closed on part of the lagoon and they got in the water, teaching Eren while the merfolk watched curiously through the gate, poking their fingers through the holes and watching him.

Cenotes, Hanji explained excitedly, are large sinkholes. Time and weather erode away at the limestone until it collapses, revealing the cave below. Then rainwater fills the hole. The Titan’s Eye looked like a pool of green blue water from above, but below the surface it was just one part of a large cave system that Hanji believed extended all the way to the coast over a mile away. When the rainwater mixes with the saltwater it forms layers due to the density of the salinity. The place where the layers meet is called the Halocline.

The layer of saltwater below the Halocline is incredibly oxygen deprived, few things grow down there. Everything is covered in a thin layer of silt and it is very important that silt not be disturbed. Were it to be kicked up, it would take forever to settle. Eren could be lost in a cloud of darkness, not knowing which way the surface lay, until his oxygen tank ran out.

“That’s why,” Hanji said as Eren surfaced again, fixing his breathing apparatus. “You can’t do your usual diving kick. You’ll disturb the seafloor that way, or break any evidence we find of the merfolk’s presence in the caves. So we frog hop. Let me see your frog hop, Eren.”

He sighed and practiced his frog hop for them.

“We’re going to be mapping out the cave system until we can find out where it is they’re nesting,” Hanji said, taking the oxygen tank from Eren as he handed it to them.

“Why do you think they’re nesting there?” Eren asked, shaking water from his hair.

Hanji paused before resuming their work.

“I just do.”

It wasn’t like Hanji to go on their gut without mountains of empirical evidence to support it. Eren didn’t know why they wouldn’t disclose their reasoning, but he trusted Hanji’s instincts. Hanji saw things others couldn’t. And despite the fact that Eren had made further progress communicating with the merfolk in just one week than Hanji had made in seven years, he still didn’t know nearly enough about their customs and habits. He was learning so much about Levi through Hanji’s eyes.

“So when can we go?” Eren asked excitedly handing Hanji his flippers.

“Soon,” Hanji said taking them. “But first—“

“Ouch!” Eren yelped.

“What?” Hanji asked.

“I stepped on an urchin,” Eren complained. “Ow, oh ow!”

He pulled himself up onto the dock to examine it.

“I don’t think it was one of the poisonous ones, but ow, that really hurts,” Eren winced, holding back tears.

Levi, who had been passively observing Eren underwater now swam back and forth along the gate trying to see what the source of Eren’s pain was. Finally, growing irritated, he threw a rock that struck the gate lever and the gates pulled back and he pushed through.

“What? They could open it this entire time?” Hanji jumped, putting a hand to their messy hair.

“Hurt?” Levi signed.

Eren nodded.

He peered at Eren’s foot, examining the spine. Levi mimed pulling it out.

“Yeah, it needs to come out,” Eren agreed as Hanji returned with a first aid kit. “But first I need the—hey!”

Levi seized his foot and quickly pinched it out with his clawed hands.

“Good!” Isabel signed, skipping across the roll of the waves happily, the same sign Hanji used whenever they completed a task. “Good! Good!”

“Yeah, ‘Good,’” Eren signed back, rubbing his foot.

Levi disappeared beneath the water and when he returned he was holding the urchin with the broken spines. He cracked it in two with a sharp rock and then scooped out the meat for him to eat. Brown liquid poured out and Eren leaned away from it. Levi performed his usual cleaning ritual that he always did by bathing his food in the water. When he brought it up Eren could see something bright orange inside the remains of the shell. Levi scooped some out for himself then pressed the shell into Eren’s hands.

“Eat!” Isabel insisted before diving down for her own.

Eren put it to his lips and watched as Levi swallowed the urchin meat. Eren did the same. And gagged.

“It’s so salty!” he complained as it went down. “And slimy!”

“Good!” Isabel insisted a happy trill accompanying her signing.

Levi looked pleased that Eren had accepted his gift. He dove and returned with another just as Hanji began bandaging his foot.

“Please no more,” Eren begged.

Farlan sped by and took the urchin out of Levi’s hands. Levi chased him and they wrestled, pulling at each other’s tails.

“I can’t wait to see the caves,” Eren told Hanji sighing wistfully as they watched Levi and Farlan’s fins dancing over the sparkling water in the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all like what I'm putting out. ;D I've been talking a few different people while doing research for this fic, but if you have input please feel free to message me at my tumblr: [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/).


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The caves!
> 
> "10,000 Emerald Pools"//BØRNS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> The tracking tag is fic: #merfluff
> 
> If you like, please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> \--
> 
> TW: claustrophobia, near drowning. They're going into caves, if small spaces aren't your thing I thought I'd leave a warning.

Standing at the edge of the steep cliff overlooking the cenote, however, Eren had second thoughts about their plans.

“Wait!” he gasped as Hanji checked their pack. “We’re not…we’re not really jumping are we? I can’t do that!”

“There’s a ladder right there,” Hanji said. “Have fun getting all the gear down.”

“Wait, how are you—“ Eren started.

Hanji gave a smile, tapping their goggles before pushing off the cliff in a practiced leap. Eren leaned over the cliff edge and watched open mouthed as their body arced down into the open maw of the blue hole. There was a bright flash of a small yellow parachute to slow their entry into the water and Eren sighed in relief.

“Your turn!” Hanji shouted.

It took Eren nearly 20 minutes to make it down with all of their gear and by the time he got there his arms were aching. Climbing up after the long dive was going to be fun.

“Now remember,” Hanji said, testing their gear. “Follow behind me, but at a distance. It gets narrow down there and there’s not much room to turn around. And hold onto the guide rope at all times. That way if you do get lost or if we get separated you can find your way back. Got that?”

“Yes,” Eren said, giving a firm nod.

“Let’s go then!” Hanji grinned.

Eren spat in his mask and rubbed the lens to keep it from fogging. He craned his neck upwards to look at the bright blue sky, before placing his mask over his face and adjusting it. Then he fit his regulator mouthpiece.

“We good?” Hanji asked in a nasally tone.

Eren gave a thumbs up.

“Okay, now you watch me, pause when I pause to adjust for the change in pressure. And keep an eye on your SPG!”

Eren felt a chill run through his body that had little to do with the water. In fact the water was pleasantly warm, though Eren expected that would change. After one final check, Hanji dived and Eren followed.

Blue swallowed them up like Jonah into the belly of the whale.

Close proximity with the merfolk had Eren rethinking his spatial reasoning and navigation. Movement in water was different than on land. To the merfolk, there was no sidewalk and there was no sudden cliff, they could go as deep as the pressure would allow. The whole of the ocean was their realm. They appeared confused that Eren could not take to the sky like a bird in flight. Watching them, reminded Eren how limited he was and how free the merfolk were. They were like astronauts floating out into space. And here, underwater, with only his tank to allow him to breath, Eren realized he might as well be on another planet.

Hanji paused and waited, eyeing their watch. They needed to descend slowly and adjust to the change in pressure. Eren had no desire to spend the last few days of his vacation with a case of the bends. When Hanji gave the signal, he continued down.

Hanji pointed and Eren followed their hand.

He couldn’t be quite sure what he was looking at. An illusion of an underwater lake, it shimmered and undulated before him like waves lapping at the shore. Ancient sunken trees branched out from depths and Eren thought back to the swimming hole they used to visit on Armin’s grandfather’s farm and the gnarled roots of an old willow they had used as foot holds. Hanji’s gloved hand descended and raked over the layer and the water stirred in the wake. Eren fumbled with the special underwater camera Hanji had charged him with. Then he too caressed the water watching it move through his spread fingers. Eren created his own oil painting right there, so entranced with the sight of the water curling around him. It was beautiful and he felt he could stay suspended in that moment forever by the buoyant layer. He held his breath as he slowly kicked down through the halocline. Above him was an underwater Milky Way, celestial and ethereal. He gave it one more awestruck look before he turned his attention to the task at hand.

There was little oxygen below the halocline, nothing grew here. It was a graveyard, where things fell to the floor of the caves. Below him were trees that had seeded, taken root, and toppled thousands of years before Eren was ever born. And many an animal had met its demise in the cenote. Eren shined his flashlight over the bones and took a picture. They too were impossibly old, but preserved and intact. A thick layer of silt covered them and he kept his distance. If the merfolk did in fact nest here, then Hanji wanted to know how they survived in the oxygen deprived environment. Although, Hanji confessed, it was more probable they did so in the caves closer to the shoreline, of which there were _hundreds_.

Eren kicked back up and joined Hanji at the first cave opening. The first tunnel was at the halocline level. Hanji had warned Eren before that visibility would be low. They would need to move carefully. Hanji would pass through first with the line. Eren would wait until it was clear. Hanji motioned for him to continue and he did so, holding onto the line, being careful not to touch the walls. The passage narrowed and now Eren knew why Hanji had prepped him so thoroughly. All of those hours spent on shore fumbling for a line blindfolded while the merfolk watched curiously from the water now seemed worth it.

The next opening was tight. Holding the line, Hanji moved their oxygen tank from the bungee cord on their side and pushed it in front of them before slipping through the hole themselves. Eren followed suit. He was suddenly conscious of every part of himself: his ribcage and how it expanded with each breath, his legs and how heavy they felt with the flippers—he made a mental note to get lighter ones, his third or fourth pair this trip. With every ounce of focus he had, he made it through the narrow opening. Hanji secured the line to a marker ahead, dipping below the halocline. They signed to Eren and he nodded.

From here on out, they were in uncharted territory. And since it was Eren’s first cave dive they weren’t going far. He checked his watch. They had been under only ten minutes. They would continue for another thirty-five and then turn back. Navigating through the tunnels was arduous and exhausting. One hour underwater felt like four on land. Hanji went ahead and marked locations and Eren hung back until he was given the signal, lest they get too crowded. While waiting for Hanji, he became distracted taking pictures. The picked-clean corpse of an animal was beneath him and he quickly snapped a photo. It almost looked like…no. But maybe? For a brief moment he thought it might have been a merperson, but that was impossible, right?

It was hard not to let his thoughts wander inside the caves. Despite Hanji’s presence, he felt isolated and alone: set out to sea in his own mind. He thought of Levi and the merfolk. Why would they come to this place? Why risk being seen by humans just to be close to this structure?

Hanji signaled and they began their retreat to the surface. When they made it back to the second narrow opening, Hanji went first, pushing the tank forward and then slipping through. Eren, growing listless in the dark silence, found himself kicking lazily. He waited until Hanji was a far enough distance. By this point, Hanji trusted him to continue forward and didn’t look back.

Eren grabbed his tank and it hitched on his shoulder. Frustrated, he yanked it with both hands, releasing the safety line. It sprang free and knocked into the wall of the cavern. And as the silt bloomed up around him like an angry hornet’s nest, Eren realized his mistake. He fumbled around looking for the line, panic rising in his throat. He couldn’t find it! Eren thrashed, his hand moving wildly when something tugged on him.

He’d found the line.

He had inadvertently tangled it in his gear! He was caught like a fly on a web. He was going to be trapped down here and forgotten until he had run out of air, drowned in this lonely cavern! How would they tell Mikasa and Armin? Who would explain things to his father? Eren’s breath came rapidly, bubbles disturbing the halocline and the silt. He was clothed in darkness, blinded and he felt like he was falling. A sob caught in his throat. Eren squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will aside blind panic, even as he fumbled trying to free himself.

Then he felt it.

A clawed hand gently sliding across his arm, over the back of his hand guiding him back to the line. Eren seized it and moved forward. The way was still blurry and dark. Eren kicked forward, careful not to drop the line now that he’d found it. He moved blindly until he felt himself connect with something and made out Hanji’s mask against his. They offered him the long hose but Eren didn’t need it. Eren looked around for his savior, but saw nothing in the cloud behind him. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. His disaster averted, he found himself reenergized, still shaking and jumpy from his near death experience. He scanned the depths vigilantly.

They paused again outside the caves, waiting to depressurize. Then they slowly broke the surface.

“What happened down there?” were the first words out of Hanji’s mouth.

“I screwed up, I’m sorry,” Eren apologized, looking downcast.

Hanji didn’t say anything on the long climb up the ladder, they were both too out of breath. Hanji took Eren to their favorite restaurant and they ate in exhausted silence. Eren looking up at Hanji nervously.

“I’m not mad,” they said, rubbing their full belly and wiping at the dried salt on their skin. “This is my fault. I’m so used to doing things by myself, you know? And you only just learned how to dive and here I am making all these demands of you.”

Eren stared at his food, discouraged. Even though Hanji’s words were kind, he felt like a scolded schoolboy.

“I, uh,” Hanji wiped at their mouth. “Had a similar experience. One that I vowed never to repeat. I was so sure that the merfolk were using the caves on the east side of the island. I would go out in my boat and explore each cave. And then one day, I must have gotten too close because…uh…M1—Levi—came after me. I never even saw him coming. He ripped off my mask and tanks and left—“

“Levi wouldn’t do that!” Eren interrupted.

“He did, Eren. And I won’t go in the water or anywhere near him ever again. I’m not making that same mistake. And you should be careful too.”

“Levi would never hurt me!” Eren said, standing up, now visibly angry. “He saved me down in that cave!”

Hanji was taken aback by this outburst but Eren was too furious to continue the conversation.

He left Hanji alone at the diner and walked the rest of the way back to his bungalow. It was a long walk, his body and mind exhausted from the cave and by the time he made it back home all he wanted to do was fall into bed. However Armin and Mikasa had other plans.

“We’re going out,” Mikasa informed him, hands on hips.

“Go without me then,” Eren waved her off.

“Nope, c’mon, get up,” she nudged him. “You need to eat.”

At Eren’s heated expressed, Armin intervened.

“I think,” Armin said, with a sideways look at Mikasa. “What we’re trying to say is that this was supposed to be a vacation for all of us since we don’t see each other much during the school year and we want to spend time with you. Do you think you could…maybe…spend an evening with us? Since we’re leaving the day after tomorrow? There’s some kind of festival happening down at the beach. Margaritas are half off.”

One cocktail later and Eren had to admit it was a good idea. The night air was cool but his face was flushed and warm. He forgot all about the incident in the cave and focused on the music and entertainment taking bites of some sweet custardy dessert from Mikasa’s offered spoon.

“We have a special show for you folks tonight,” an announcer called out and the three of them gravitated towards the sound. She spoke twice, once announcing in the native tongue and then again in English for the tourists.

“Please welcome our local elementary school performing group! Today they have a performance they wrote and choreographed themselves. This one is called _The Dolphin Boy!_ Once upon a time…”

As she spoke, the children flitted out onto the stage to the beat of the instructor’s drum. All of the girls had on stage makeup and perfect ballet buns and they smiled brightly as they put their hands up over their heads.

“…There was a dolphin boy.”

All of the boys shuffled onto the right half of the stage all wearing dorsal fins on their back. They had blue skirts around their waist to hide their legs. They waved their arms about miming swimming in the water as the girls continued to pirouette.

“This is so cute,” Mikasa murmured to Eren and Armin, eyes fondly watching one girl who was a whole beat behind her peers, whipping about frantically to catch up.

“He loved to swim and catch fish.”

One of the boys shuffled forward to the front of the group, wearing a slightly darker shade of blue. He hopped and caught a Styrofoam fish that was velcroed to a stick held by another performer. Eren and the rest of the audience laughed as he hopped.

“Then one night the people of the village on land had a great big party and invited everyone in the neighboring villages to attend. And a dolphin can never resist a party.”

The girls started a new kind of dance, holding flowers in their hands. The dolphin boy himself was watching with interest, but still caught on the blue background and separated from those on land. Eren felt his smile slipping a little as he watched.

“He decided to go on land…”

The boy suddenly leapt out of his blue skirt and onto the other side of the stage. Eren felt a pang in his chest.

“He danced and danced with the prettiest girl from the village…”

Eren turned away from the stage. There were tourists walking by with fried food and children chasing each other with sparklers. Torch flames fluttered and flags whipped about in the breeze. There was white sand in Eren’s sandals and salt on his skin. He turned about, looking for a pale face in the crowd. But there was no familiar friend. He rubbed at the skin where the mysterious hand had steered him toward the safety line and he felt a lump rise in his throat. He walked away from the production, away from the hanging fairy lights, and out to the docks by the marina. Ignoring the Off-Limits sign, he ducked under and trudged to the very end of the pier. The water was cool against his feet. He felt around in his shorts pocket for the shells they had picked up earlier and turned it over in his palm. His vision blurred with tears and he accidentally let it fall from his fingers. It hit the water with an audible drop and Eren let out a sigh of frustration. As he leaned over to see where it had fallen a very familiar hand lifted it up to his nose.

“Levi!” Eren gasped in shock.

Levi set it in his palm, plucking off a bit of seaweed and offered it to Eren.

“Sad?” Levi signed questioning Eren.

“Sad? No, I’m just... _tired_ ,” he signed the last word and Levi didn’t have the words to question further, but he didn’t appear to believe him. “What are you doing here Levi? You shouldn’t be here! Someone could see you!”

Levi blinked his second set of lids, not fully comprehending. Isabel poked her head up and Eren jumped.

“What are you doing here?” Eren protested.

There was singing from the schoolchildren on land and Isabel trilled along with them. There were bubbles under Eren’s feet and that had to be Farlan joining her. Sure enough he crested, singing not quite as loud as Izzy.

“Okay, I get it, you guys want to sing—“ 

Levi signed _sing_ along with Eren’s words and Eren paused and copied the movement before continuing.

“And the party and lights are really exciting but this is really dangerous you should not—“

“Eren? Eren where’d you go?” Mikasa called.

“Go! Hide!” Eren hissed, his signing barely intelligible.

When they failed to move, he put his foot on Isabel’s head and attempted to push her under the waves.

“Eren!”

Isabel mimicked the tone of Mikasa’s shout as if it were part of the song.

“GO!” Eren signed emphatically.

They reluctantly dipped below the docks and out of sight. Eren heaved a sigh of relief.

“Eren!” Mikasa called.

“Here! Sorry!” Eren waved, getting to his feet.

“There you are,” Mikasa said and motioned to Armin who came running. “You ditched us again. Why do you keep sneaking off? Do you have a girlfriend out—“

She stopped and her eyes flew wide. Unable to speak, she pointed, her hand shaking. Eren turned his head slowly, half cringing to see the merfolk peering over the edge of the dock at her.

“Eren get away from it!”

Quick to action, Mikasa grabbed an oar from the docks and brandished it like a weapon. Isabel, sensing danger, backed behind Levi, who didn’t flinch an inch.

“What’s going on over—Ahmff!” Armin called and Eren clapped his hand over his mouth.

“Get away!” Mikasa said, poking the oar at Levi. Levi simply tugged it from her grasp, nearly pulling her into the water with it.

“Mikasa stop!”

“Eren, what is that?” Armin asked. “Oh, they said don’t drink the water! But I didn’t mean to! I accidentally swallowed a little brushing my teeth and oh god now I’m hallucinating.”

“You’re not—no, you’re—CALM DOWN!” Eren bellowed and Isabel yelped and disappeared beneath the water. Farlan took her place, his fins flaring threateningly. “Mikasa, you’re scaring them. Armin you’re not hallucinating. These are my friends.”

He chose the words carefully, speaking slowly and calmly, making sure to sign so the merfolk could understand.

“This is Levi,” Eren indicated and Levi and Mikasa sized each other up warily. “And Farlan. And you scared Isabel off. Guys this is my…family.” He signed for family and comprehension dawned in Levi’s eyes. “This is my sister. Mikasa.” He signed for her scarf. “This is Armin.” He signed for reading.

“Hello,” Armin gave a weak wave.

Farlan mimicked the gesture. Levi went from curious to bored, leaning away from the docks, but was stopped by a sharp jab from Farlan. Armin continued waving, his hand faltering a little and Levi slapped his tail in aloof recognition.

“Is this what you’ve been doing every time you sneak off?” Mikasa asked, still in shock and not taking her eyes off of Levi.

“Yes,” Eren confessed. “And…” He looked at the merfolk and the sinking feeling he’d been carrying around in his belly turned to resolve. “I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like, please leave kudos and comments. Or check out my blog [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji calls in a specialist to see to Isabel's bad tooth. Levi wants to know what exactly is a "kiss."
> 
> "Something Good"//The Sound of Music

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> The tracking tag is fic: #merfluff
> 
> If you like, please leave kudos and/or comments!

 

“So you see Daddy,” Mikasa said calmly. “It’s a really great opportunity.”

 “I see,” Grisha Jaeger said warily. “You said that about five times already.”

Eren had begged Mikasa and Armin for their help in convincing his father to let him stay so he could continue to help Hanji with their research and stay with his merfriends. It took quite a bit of convincing, but they eventually relented.

“It’ll look good on a resume!” Eren piped up from behind her.

“Eren is on the forefront of cutting science,” Armin added.

“I’m getting lots of experience in a real field!” Eren agreed behind Armin’s head.

“Can I talk to Dr. Hanji please?” Grisha asked.

“Right here, sir!” Hanji waved. “Eren, is integral to my research. He was the first to come across the new species and he has done most of the leg work in tracking their movements and mating behaviors and really, if I lose him now, I lose any progress I’ve made. He’s like the Jane Goodall of dolphins, sir.”

They decided dolphins was a simple enough lie until Rico intercepted Eren’s father with another NDA. As it was, it was incredibly dangerous for the merfolk’s safety that Mikasa and Armin knew, but they vowed silence, understanding the severity of the situation. Armin had even engaged the merfolk into a game of volleyball with a large inflatable beach ball until Izzy grabbed it and tried to bring it underwater with her.

“Really?” Grisha said raising his eyebrow.

“It’s a paid internship Dad!” Eren shouted over Hanji’s shoulder.

“I have to ask, where are you getting your grant money?” Grisha asked Hanji.

“…Grant?” Hanji asked and then burst out into a titter.

When Eren and company looked at them in confusion it only made them laugh harder.

“Grants,” they whispered. “Sorry, sorry Dr. Jaeger, I’m so sorry. No, I’m privately funded by a research group. I do have request forms, but I’m pretty much given carte blanche with regards to funding, so no grants.” Hanji sighed and brushed away a tear from under their goggles. “I am so glad I’m not in academia anymore, oh, thank you for that, I needed that.”

“I...see,” Grisha said. “Do you guys mind if I talk to Eren in private for a moment?”

They cleared the lab to give Eren and his father some space.

“Dad, this is really important to me,” Eren insisted. “And I’ll have a place to sleep—sure it’s on Hanji’s couch until we can clear the second bedroom out of files and fish, but—“

“Eren—“

“And, food! And I’ll be compensated for my time, it’s only minimum wage but it’s a paid internship—“

“It’s just Eren, I didn’t even know you were interested in biology. You’re a poli sci major.”

That was true, aside from a few biology classes his father insisted on in hopes that Eren would eventually change his mind and switch to pre-med, Eren had shown little interest in the sciences at all.

“I actually lately have been thinking about…being a biology major,” Eren lied. “I was just working out how to tell you.”

Grisha was silent on the other end scratching at his nose, not looking at the camera but at Eren’s image on his own screen.

“It’s just, _Dad_ , I really feel like this is where I’m truly meant to be.”

<*>

Mikasa and Armin boarded the ferry to the mainland. Eren stayed behind with his father’s blessing. He hugged them both and gave Mikasa a kiss.

“Call,” she ordered.

“I will,” Eren promised.

“And please…be careful, okay?” Mikasa asked, not quite releasing him yet

And then they were gone.

Hanji’s couch was lumpy and full of crumbs and no doubt the source of the cockroaches but Eren vacuumed the cushions and surrounding area and only screamed once when he found a dead cockroach. Hanji’s lab was below the water level with a large round window to observe the merfolk that was unfortunately covered in slimy green gunk which made it very difficult to see. As Eren punched his pillow on his makeshift bed, he watched the dark water sleepily, happy that he was able to stay by Levi longer.

Except when he woke up the next day it was due to the bright light streaming through the water outside his window. His very, _very_ clean window.

“Date: April 14th, M1 is now displaying more of his cleaning and grooming rituals. He has now cleared the window to my lab free of algae. I am now struck with the situation I now find myself in. That now I am the watched one whereas previously I was the watcher. This sensation is strange, but hopefully now the subjects will have a greater understanding of human habitation and this will further facilitate communications—what are you doing?” Hanji flicked off the recorder to watch Eren tugging their furniture around.

“I have an idea!” Eren said, grunting with effort.

“Now my new assistant Eren is attempting to create a display for the subjects by—“

“Are you gonna talk into that thing or are you gonna help?”

Just a few switches to the speakers and suddenly Eren was blasting television for the merfolk to watch. He found a video for ASL and put it on play. They made their laps around the window more frequently and slower to better watch. Finally they stopped and cocked their heads in puzzlement at the moving pictures. And Eren didn’t stop there, he had all kinds of movies going for them at the same time. Princess Bride. Annie. Pollyanna. The Karate Kid. My Fair Lady. Hanji cautioned against The Little Mermaid saying it might be confusing for them, and Eren tried to steer clear of movies with talking animals. Then one day Eren found himself humming along to “Something Good” from Rogers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music as the movie played on the screen below and the speakers warbled underwater. He and Hanji were busy securing ties along the edge of the docks. When the song ended, Levi poked his head out of the water and let out a sharp trill.

“What is it?” Eren asked.

Levi dove under and when Eren didn’t follow him, he came back out and barked at them.

“Alright, alright, what are you—“

“I got it,” Hanji said, bringing it up on the tablet screen. “This?”

Hanji found the same scene Levi had just been watching and tapped the screen, angling it towards him.

_“Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.”_

There were two silhouettes standing there as the singing slowly tapered off and then they pressed their lips together. Levi’s eyes darted back and forth between them as the scene replayed and when they touched, the spines on his ears rotated forward, utterly entranced.

“That?” Hanji asked watching Levi’s reaction with dawning amusement.

Levi saw the excited grin spreading across Hanji’s face and then his expression quickly dropped.

“That is a kiss,” Hanji signed. “Kiss.”

Levi watched the lesson and then signed back.

“Yes! Exactly!” Hanji cried, clapping their hands. “Let’s get you a fish.”

Hanji held one out for Levi to take and he eyed it scornfully.

Then, to their surprise, he signed, “Eren. Kiss.”

Hanji immediately gasped and began taking notes furiously at the interaction, but Eren felt a flush creeping up his cheeks.

“You want to give Eren a kiss? You want Eren to kiss you?” Hanji asked, eagerly attempting to translate.

Levi ignored them and continued to sign intently at Eren.

“I—uh—good yay! You learned a new sign,” Eren sputtered.

“Eren kiss?” Levi signed.

Levi wasn’t asking for a kiss, he was reminding Eren of the brief kiss they’d shared. It hadn’t meant anything to Levi then, but following the movie, Levi had an insight to its significance and he looked at Eren for clarification. To be quite honest, Eren himself had forgotten the innocent kiss until Levi asked.

“Kiss?” Levi signed, now looking between them, asking for an explanation.

“Does he want us to kiss?” Eren asked but Hanji answered him by giving him a very wet kiss on the cheek.

“Kiss!” Hanji said loudly as Eren wiped off his cheek. “It’s like…like hug!”

Hanji signed hug for Levi and then embraced an unsuspecting Eren. Eren winced in Hanji’s iron grip. Levi’s expression went from confusion to annoyance and he disappeared under the water, his tail lazily splashing them. Eren felt an uncomfortable twisting in his belly. He hadn’t expected to explain things like kissing to the merfolk and had absolutely no idea how to start.

<*>

Izzy spent all of a cloudy Wednesday moaning on the rock in the center of the lagoon. Farlan and Levi brought her food but she sniffed it and ignored it. They even mashed it for her, but she still wouldn’t eat.

“It’s time,” Hanji said sighing sipping their three day old coffee.

“Time for what?” Eren asked.

“To call in the professionals.”

The merfolk were crepuscular creatures, meaning they hunted at dawn and dusk. The rest of the time they spent lounging against rocks resting or playing. In the middle of the night, Hanji and Eren prepared for the specialist’s arrival so as not to attract their attention. Hanji left to retrieve their guest from the airport on the mainland and Eren nervously paced the lab.

“You’re the specialist?” Eren asked scornfully, upon seeing the man Hanji brought back with them.

“Apparently,” Hanji said, looking just as annoyed as Eren felt.

“Uh, yes, that’s me! Dr. Berner Moblit!” he said, extending his hand. Eren looked at it and then looked at Hanji.

“He’s sunburnt already,” Eren said putting his hands on his hips and fixing Dr. Moblit with a look.

Taking in the sandals with socks, Hawaiian shirt, and fanny pack, he came to one conclusion: Dr. Moblit was a tourist.

“I know!” Hanji said throwing up their hands at Eren’s expression. “I didn’t hire him!”

“Sorry…am I not needed here?” Dr. Moblit asked looking over the wrong shoulder at Hanji and tripping over some of the floating training blocks they had been using.

“Careful!” Eren said, straightening them.

“Is there some place I should stand? Because this entire room looks…hazardous.”

“It works for us,” Hanji shrugged.

“Yeah it works for us.” Eren crossed his arms.

“Right,” Dr. Moblit said patting the blocks. “Okay. Well it’s clear you two have quite the team going on here and I would hate to disturb that so maybe you could direct me to my patient?”

They looked at each other.

“This is a highly sensitive operation and I don’t really feel comfortable giving you access,” Hanji said, hands on hips.

“Your benefactor’s people have already vetted me and found my credentials to their satisfaction. Ha, vetted.”

They stared.

“It’s a pun,” Moblit explained chuckling. “Because I’m a vet?”

Eren’s nostrils flared.

“Uhhh,” he stalled, seeing that Hanji and Eren were unimpressed. “I have degrees in marine biology and veterinary service but I mostly specialize in dental work. I have worked for several large scale zoos and aquariums performing difficult oral surgery cases.”

Eren’s brows relaxed just a bit. Hanji adjusted their goggles.

“You know,” Moblit said with some small amount of swagger, sensing an in. “They call me Dr. SharkTooth because—“

“No,” said Hanji.

“We are never calling you that,” Eren continued.

“Never,” Hanji agreed.

“Oh, okay, that’s fine,” Moblit backpedaled quickly.

“What do you know about our uh, particular situation here?” Hanji asked tucking a curl behind their ear.

“Not a whole lot honestly. I was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement so I assume some kind of exotic pet or illegal preservation group. Not that I mind, although my first duty is to the animal’s health and safety.”

Hanji and Eren exchanged a look.

“I mean, it’s sortof hard for me to get legitimate work with my arrest record,” he continued.

“Arrest record?” Eren asked, looking him over and taking a step back. “What did they send us a pervert?”

“I—what? How did you come to that conclusion—“

“I found it!” Hanji said, hands flying over the keyboard as they did a quick google search. “There’s…video?”

“Let me see!” Eren wedged himself next to Hanji.

Dr. Moblit grew pale. “Uh, I would prefer if you didn’t—“

A professional looking anchorwoman in a dayglow yellow blazer stacked her notes, reading from a prompter, “Police today arrested several protesters who had chained themselves to the Sea World gates. At first police and Sea World officials were content to leave them there as they could still swing the gates open easily, but after a few days the park was forced to call when people complained of the smell.”

The footage cut to police using the Jaws of Life to remove a flailing Moblit from the front gates.

“The orcas in Sea World are being kept in the equivalent of a bathtub!” he shouted, hair mussed and bits of foam in the corners of his mouth. “Don’t let them tell you differently! Sea World is lying to you! SEA WORLD IS LYING TO YOU!”

“Oh look, there’s an autotuned version,” Hanji said clicking on another link and they listened in approval to a dubstep remix of Moblit’s shouting. Then for good measure they watched it again.

“It’s catchy,” Eren agreed.

When they turned back to look at Moblit he had his head in his hands over his glasses, looking absolutely mortified. Hanji turned and left the room. Eren followed them. When Moblit sat there for a few more seconds in mortified silence, Hanji poked their head back in.

“C’mon!” they waved and Moblit started, grabbing his dental tools.

“Meet our lab subjects!” Hanji said, indicating the group.

Moblit squinted in the sunlight.

“I don’t see any—“

At that moment, Eren cannonballed off the docks, splashing the dentist’s glasses. Moblit removed them and polished them and then his mouth dropped open.

“Izzy say hi to Moblit!” Eren signed.

Izzy looked up at Moblit with a curious gaze, taking in his glasses and brightly colored shirt eagerly.

“How do we say ‘Hi!’?” Eren prompted Izzy.

Izzy blinked her second set of lids in confusion and then cautiously extended a hand.

“Yes! Exactly!” Eren praised and Izzy slapped her tail in excitement.

She offered the hand to Moblit and he bent down to take it, hand trembling in excitement.

“This can’t be real, this isn’t real? This has to be some kind of—“

Izzy yanked him down, nearly pulling him off the docks to examine his features, tugging on his ears and pulling off his hat.

“Like is this some kind of mask or—“ Moblit ran his fingers over Isabel’s face in wonder as her tail swirled the water in excitement. “Oh my god. You are beautiful.”

He traced the edge of her jaw and she suddenly hissed in pain and leapt away from him, taking his hat with her, retreating to sulk on her favorite rock.

“Oh,” said Moblit, treading water. “I see.”

Hanji helped him out of the water and onto the docks.

“Can you help her?” Eren asked nervously.

“I’m not sure, I’ve never worked on this kind of creature in my life! You might be better suited to getting a human dentist! I mean I—“ he stopped as he saw Farlan come out of the water to comfort Izzy, stretching out along her side. A spark of determination lit itself behind his timid eyes and Eren remembered the man frothing at the mouth, desperate to help the orcas of SeaWorld. He began rolling up his sleeves. “Yes. Yes I can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like, please leave kudos and comments. Or check out my blog [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isabel has her tooth removed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)
> 
> This chapter gets a little intense during Isabel's scene but then we're back to our regularly scheduled fluff.

Hanji and Eren stood by nervously as Moblit looked over the pictures.

“Wow,” he said for the millionth time to himself. “Do you see these canine teeth? I just…wow, these are so very similar to sea lion—do you think I could get a mold?—no you’re right that would take far too long and cause undue stress on our patient—you say she’s not eating? That’s troubling, especially if, as you say, she’s preparing for young. Very worrying. We will need to move fast—what do you have prepared? I don’t think I can put her under like I would any other animal. I have no way of knowing what their metabolism or body chemistry is like and I could potentially kill her. She’ll need to be conscious.”

Awake. Isabel would have to be awake. Awake and terrified and very much aware of what was happening. That was the worst case scenario they had feared.

“We’re only going to get one shot at this,” Hanji said.

“I know what I’m doing, do you two?” Moblit said, turning around from the screens to look at them.

Eren looked up at Hanji. Did they?

“We’re prepared,” Hanji said resignedly. “As well as we’re ever going to be.”

<*>

“That is SO INTERESTING EREN!” Hanji said loudly, signing along with their words.

“It IS HANJI!” Eren answered, kicking his feet in the water.

Levi watched them suspiciously, passing by the docks, his belly brushing against the bottoms of Eren’s feet.

“May I have some Eren?” Hanji asked, signing for some of the chocolate.

“Yes you may!” Eren said, handing it over.

“Mmm CHOCOLATE,” Hanji said.

Chocolate. Isabel had become very familiar with that word. She perked her head up on the rock and sniffed. Hanji popped the Hershey bar into their mouth and Isabel dove off the rock. In the blink of an eye she was by their feet, passing a “C” shape over her hand.

“You want chocolate?” Eren asked, holding the bar.

Izzy slapped her tail in excitement, signing again, her expression pleading with Eren. Hanji stood up and hit the button for the gates and then dug out a chocolate bar from their bag. Isabel paid no attention to the gate closing behind her. Eren had applied a great deal of WD-40 so they no longer made the same amount of racket until the latch sealed. Farlan picked his head up off the rock sleepily at the sound.

Eren held the chocolate out and Isabel reached to take it. In a flash, Hanji activated the net. It took Izzy a moment to understand what was happening, instead letting out a confused yelp. At the sound Levi was immediately at the gate. He threw a rock at the controls, but Hanji had them locked from their tablet so the effort was futile. The moment Izzy realized she was trapped, fully and completely trapped, panic took over. She began thrashing, tangling herself further. And then the squealing started. It was perhaps the worst sound Eren had ever heard in his life. High pitched and disorienting, Eren’s first instinct was to clap his hands over his ears. And then Farlan started with his own growling call back. He and Levi pulled at the gate, ripping at the chain link fence. When that didn’t work, Levi fled around the edge of the docks, pulling out Hanji’s cameras, releasing the oxygen tanks, ripping up anything of use to try and distract Hanji.

“Izzy! Izzy it’s okay!” Eren shouted, struggling to be heard as they pulled her out of the water.

She clawed through his shirt as he attempted to hold her front. Moblit grabbed her tail and was rewarded by having the wind knocked out of him.

“Ow! These spines are sharp!” Moblit hissed in pain.

“Yeah, just don’t let them break the skin, they may contain a small amount of neurotoxin,” Hanji said as Moblit let out a groan of protest.

“Izzy stop!” Eren begged.

“Got it!” Hanji said, securing snaps around Izzy’s flailing arm’s pinning them to her side. Hanji set about pulling rope over her tail.

“Eren! I need help with this!” Hanji shouted as Izzy’s tail swooped like a whip.

Izzy was shaking. Eren had known this was going to be hard, he just hadn’t expected it like this.

“It’s okay! It’s okay!” he kept repeating over and over again, but her eyes were rolling in her head as she looked around.

“Eren!” Hanji shouted again.

“Hanji, I’m going to ask you not to shout, when you talk, you need to talk at my level, do you understand? Hi there Izzy, you are looking so pretty today,” Moblit said and his voice was soft and calm like a steady stream through the water. “I need you to open your mouth, can you do that?” He had gloves on and when he went to touch her face, she attempted to bite him.

Hanji realized their mistake, “Eren,” they repeated in a calmer but still urgent voice.

“It’s okay,” Eren repeated, not feeling very okay himself.

She began to cry and then Eren began to cry.

“It’s okay Izzy!” Eren said, wiping furiously at the saltwater on his cheeks. “Out! And then Good!”

“Out,” he signed. “Good,” he signed. Just like the sea urchin spine. “Out. Out. Good.”

Her breathing heavy, she followed his signs, recognition sparking. She stopped thrashing and Hanji secured her tail.

Finally they released the net and it fell limp around them. He was able to release his hold on her somewhat now that she was trapped on the docks. He grabbed the bucket and poured water to keep her comfortable.

“Good!” Eren signed.

Isabel trilled softly in agreement. She looked at Eren and only Eren and then nodded. _She nodded._ She nodded and stilled. Relief flooded him.

“Alright, Izzy, we are going to start, I need you to bite onto this—“ Moblit must have known that she couldn’t understand him, but his voice set the right tone. He attempted to wedge a gag to keep her from biting him and she balked and hissed.

“Good!” Eren repeated, soothingly, touching her hair.

Mer-hair was surprisingly soft. Eren expected it to feel rough and matted, but it was like silk in his hands. And then, he didn’t know why he did it, but he started singing. He didn’t know what he was singing, any musical, any showtune, anything that was soft and gentle. She stilled. She cried when Moblit worked a needle into her mouth and Eren held her hand. And then she was numb and Moblit was talking quickly to Eren.

“Molars have more nerves so I may need to break it up with a burr and that’s going to be scary, so Eren, I’ll need you to calm her.”

“I don’t see the other two anymore,” Hanji said in a worried voice. “And I don’t have visual underwater either.”

Eren squinted. It was also suspiciously quiet.

“They’re digging underneath the gate,” Hanji said in a horrified whisper.

“Can we move her further from the docks?” Eren asked.

“We are not moving anywhere, we are finishing this here and now,” Moblit said in the same cheery tone. “Got it. Easy. There we go sweetheart.”

Izzy whimpered as she caught sight of the tooth, turning into Eren’s chest.

They were done not a moment too soon. Farlan wiggled from underneath the gate as they lowered Izzy back into the water. Farlan hooked his arms under her and sped away between the quickly opening gates. Moblit tried to step back from the docks but Levi’s tail caught him in the chest and knocked him in the water. Hanji went to help him, but Levi hissed in their face.

“Stop!” Eren shouted.

Levi’s bright and angry warning colors had spread all the way to his face and he fixed Eren with a fierce gaze before leaving. Moblit pulled himself out of the water coughing and wheezing.

Eren watched the undulation of Levi’s tail before it disappeared. Why did that feel like good-bye?

They cleaned up the mess left by the merfolk, righting the tanks and examining the damage. Feeling like battle-weary soldiers, they trudged into the lab. Hanji and Eren collapsed on opposite ends of the couch. Moblit, clutching his bruised chest, hobbled into the kitchen. They heard him rummaging around in the kitchen. There was a sharp cry as he found a cockroach and smacked it with his sandal and when he reappeared it was with Hanji’s secret stash of tequila.

“Limes are in the—“ Hanji started, but Moblit uncapped it and tilted the bottle. “That’s one way to do it.”

Hanji grabbed a mug from crab crates that served as their coffee table and tossed out the pens, holding the now empty cup to Moblit, who filled it.

“Eren?” Hanji asked.

“I’m going,” Eren said suddenly. He didn’t want company.

He didn’t know how long he walked for and didn’t realize just how far he’d gone until his feet hit the edge of the sand. He was back at the shore where he had first met Levi. The sun sank lower in the sky, casting glittering diamonds over the still horizon. He trudged out to the edge of the water, let the waves lap at his feet. A small crab walked over his toes and continued down the beach. Eren watched it pass and then stepped into the surf. He continued walking out until it was up to his chest, letting his fingers skim the surface. With a groan, he flopped onto his back. He bit his lip to keep himself from crying, his whole face scrunching up with the effort.

Looking back, he would have done the same thing. Isabel understood even if Levi didn’t. He just wished there was a way for him to explain himself to Levi. If only they could talk, Levi would understand! Yet it felt as if there was a wall between him and Levi. It wasn’t just the human and mermaid issue, they simply couldn’t communicate. How could he apologize when he hadn’t even taught Levi the sign for it yet?

He stood up, wiped at his nose, letting his hair fall in his face. He felt the crimson rays of the sunset strike his eye suddenly and blinked open. Levi was there! Peering at Eren through the curtain of his hair, one claw sweeping his fringe to the side to look at him better.

Eren’s breath hitched. He dared not move, not wanting to send Levi away.

Levi’s eyes followed one tear as it fell off Eren’s wobbling chin and he touched it, then brought it to his nose to sniff it.

“I’m sorry,” Eren said, helplessly.

Levi reached into the water and picked up Eren’s left hand, placing it around his neck. Not looking at Eren’s confused face, his picked up his right and set it on his other shoulder. Eren hiccupped and then Levi drifted away, pulling Eren with him.

He couldn’t say as much, but Levi forgave him.

Eren gave a small laugh. Spurred on by this, Levi rolled onto his back, letting Eren rest on his belly. They reached a sandbar and Levi rolled Eren over, always keeping his head above the water. It felt as if they were dancing.

The moon was up, a few stars too, the sun sinking lower and lower in the sky. The water reflected the scene back. Twin worlds mirrored and there was Eren and Levi meeting in the middle. Levi wrapped his tail around Eren’s legs and they floated serenely.

Finally Eren yawned and stretched.

“It’s so lovely out here,” he sighed.

At Levi’s expression, he corrected.

“Beautiful,” he signed so Levi could understand him. “Beautiful.”

“Eren beautiful,” signed Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this chapter please leave kudos and comments and consider reblogging the tumblr link to your blog! My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Please don't leave comments asking for updates, they're actually incredibly demoralizing.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dance in Starlight! Levi and Eren have a disagreement. Levi takes Eren to a secret place.
> 
> Planetarium//La La Land

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> This is my favorite chapter :3

Eren walked home humming to himself. He turned on the light in the lab and when he heard the skittering, it didn’t even register with him that it might be people instead of the cockroaches until he caught sight of a very naked Hanji and Moblit. Hanji held the blanket around them like a sarong and Moblit clung to a pool toy to hide himself. He was wearing Hanji’s goggles on his head and, for some inexplicable reason, a snorkel.

“Uh,” said Eren.

“…Mistakes were made,” Hanji explained quickly.

“Mistake?” Moblit asked, pulling the snorkel out of his mouth and whipping his head to look at Hanji.

“ _Doctor Sharktooth_ ,” Eren reminded Hanji.

“I know,” Hanji groaned putting a hand over their eyes.

<*>

Isabel and Farlan never returned to the lagoon. Levi did and appeared unconcerned with his friends’ absence. Hanji’s experiments were shuttered as a result. Levi didn’t want to engage with Hanji on the tasks Isabel had been excited to perform. He didn’t want free fish, he had no problem finding his own. He took no interest in Hanji and he went out of his way to splash Moblit and make his life miserable.

No, Levi’s new interest was carefully arranging several items on the docks, waiting for Eren to wake and then teach him the signs for each one. He would arrange them by size, sometimes by color, but all were clean despite their obvious time in the water.

“Oh, that’s a bottle cap,” Eren said, holding it up and rotating it. “I don’t know the sign for that one. This is a spork. I definitely don’t know the sign for that. Hold on, let me google it.”

Other times Eren would have to call Marco and ask him for input.

Yet, morning after morning there were various plastic toys and sea creatures. Then when Levi ran out of his items for the day, he would point at any little thing on the television screen. Eren was starting to regret the idea of the television—he was also running out of movie ideas.

Then one day Judy Garland was on the screen singing, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and Levi was floating right in front of the window, watching it with his keen grey eyes. Eren was eating lunch in Hanji’s lab, thankful for a moment of peace. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Levi signing to him. Eren was tired of being a dictionary. He turned his back slightly so he couldn’t see Levi. Levi rapped on the super thick glass, but Eren turned his head. He knew he was being petulant and stubborn, but it was easy to quell the questions by turning his head. It was like hitting the mute button.

There was a screech as Levi ripped one of the underwater speakers off the side of the lab and chucked it. Eren leapt from his seat.

“Levi!” Eren shouted as Levi proceeded to trash the newly reinstalled items. “Stop! That stuff is expensive! What are you doing?”

Levi turned to look back at him with a fierce expression. He slapped his tail angrily, his fins rapidly shifting colors, spinning through a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes at a hypnotic pace. Eren stopped in his tracks. And then something happened. Levi began signing so rapidly Eren couldn’t keep up.

_Eren. Me. Eren. Me._ Net ??? Fight? (Eren couldn’t make out those ones) _Waves. Water. Storm._

His movements were terse and pointed.

“Levi hold on, I can’t understand you—“

Levi’s nostrils flared and he dove beneath the water.

“You saw me with a net?” Eren asked, bewildered. “You want me to bring you a net?”

Levi popped his head back up. _Me. Net._

“You have a net? I don’t understand!”

Levi looked at his limit.

_Eren. Swim. Storm._

“You…you saw me in the storm,” Eren guessed.

Levi nodded.

“But you were in a net.”

Levi let out a strangled cry of frustration. _Eren. Song. Me. Angry._

“Why are you angry?”

Levi growled.

“I’m trying!” Eren said, rubbing at his temples. “Song? You’re mad I won’t tell you about the song? What does it matter? It’s just a stupid song!”

Levi gave up. He swam over to the rock in the center of the lagoon and stayed there. Eren couldn’t get him to come down. He kept his back to Eren the entire time.

Hanji and Moblit said they were going in to town to get dinner and supplies, but Eren had a feeling they were on a date. Levi stayed out on the rock even as the sun set, too discouraged to hunt. Eren fell onto the couch, but couldn’t sleep.

_I saw you in the storm._

Me. Net.

Eren shifted uncomfortably.

_I saw you in the storm._

Net?

Net was a word Eren had taught Levi before, when he had been dragging a net of Hanji’s across the walk. Levi gave it a wide berth and Eren took it as a chance to teach him the word.

Net.

_“Yes, it looked like he was caught in a net—I’m guessing a tuna net—and it wrapped around his side.”_

That’s right. Levi had been caught in a fishing net. He had scars on his fins from where the ropes dug into his side as he struggled. Eren tried to imagine him then. Alone in the vast ocean. Caught and sinking lower into the water.

They were close to a full moon and the water outside his window glowed with moonlight. Eren sighed, listening to the waves lap against the shore.

Levi wouldn’t sink. Levi would fight. He would kick and thrash and scream and claw his way out of a net. Eren remembered how he felt that night in the storm. Alone and fighting to breathe. Fighting to live.

And then it clicked.

_I saw you in the storm and I thought, maybe, you were like me._ The thought was heavy and felt worse than the water had felt in his lungs. Eren put his hand over his heart and rubbed at his chest.

They were the same. Sure Levi might have a few fishy appendages. But something in Eren’s desperate fight to survive had pulled Levi from his previous aversion to humans. Levi had no desire to learn about human life until Eren. He wanted to know what life meant to Eren. He wanted to know what the world meant to Eren and he wanted Eren to know him too. Eren had stupidly dismissed him—ignored him even—because it was more convenient for him. Levi had no way to tell Eren how he felt beyond signs, and just by turning his head Eren had effectively silenced any voice he might have.

He had to make it up to Levi. He just didn’t know how.

<*>

Levi was still on the rock. He hadn’t moved, or if he had Eren hadn’t seen him. Eren stepped out hesitantly and called for Levi.

“Levi?” Eren tried.

The spines on Levi’s ears rotated back to hear him, but he didn’t move.

“ _S-somewhere, over the rainbow,_ ” Eren’s voice stuttered. Levi turned his head to watch him sing with a passive and unreadable expression. “ _T_ _here’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby._ ”

He sang in a wavering voice, face screwed up in concentration as he tried to remember all the signs. Levi’s eyes traced every familiar sign.

“ _If happy little bluebirds fly, beyond the rainbow, why, oh, why can’t I?_ ” Eren finished to the quiet applause of the waves on the shore. He waited, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Levi blinked his second set of lids and then went back to ignoring Eren.

“I’m sorry!” Eren tried. “And I think…I think you’re right. You and me…maybe we are the same?”

Levi didn’t turn around.

Eren couldn’t sit out there all day, so he set about cleaning Hanji’s lab.

“What’re you doing?” Hanji said through a mouthful of cereal.

“I’m tired of all these cockroaches,” Eren grumbled. “Are you honestly using a Frisbee as a cereal bowl?”

Hanji looked at the Frisbee and then at Eren’s scowling face. “All the bowls are dirty.”

Eren lifted up several stacks of data to reveal over a dozen bowls all filled with half eaten cereal.

“Oh,” said Hanji.

Eren spent all day on this project and when he finally finished, he stepped out into the setting sunlight. Levi was nowhere to be found. When Eren went back to sleep on Hanji’s couch he could take comfort in the fact that at least now it didn’t smell like tequila. He fell asleep quickly, tired from all the vacuuming and scrubbing.

When he woke, it was because someone called to him, yet he heard no sound. He sat up and turned toward the window. Silhouetted there in the moonlight was Levi. Eren flung off the covers and ran to him. Levi put his hand on the window and Eren placed his there as well.

“Come,” Levi signed.

It was night but Eren didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his wetsuit and snorkel gear and ran out to the docks.

“Come,” Levi motioned, tugging on the dinghy.

Eren paddled the dinghy out of the lagoon so it wouldn’t wake Hanji. When he’d gone a distance, he pulled on the cord and the motor roared to life. Levi swam fast ahead of Eren, his fins reflecting in the full moon. Eren sped after him, the boat skimming across the smooth, calm water. When they came to the caves on the side of the island, Eren slowed before cutting the engine.

“What is this? Levi? Where are we?” Eren asked.

“Home,” Levi signed.

<*>

Eren pulled on his mask and checked the air in his tank. He had no idea where he was and hadn’t let Hanji know his whereabouts. Last time he’d left on a night excursion it hadn’t gone well. This time, however, Levi was with him. The merman was impatient, making quick circles around the dinghy that Eren had tied to a tall rock. Eren took one last look at the craggy rock face and fell back into the water, letting it engulf him, watching as the world he knew was swallowed by the ocean. Immediately he felt Levi slide against him.

“Hello,” Eren signed.

“Eren come,” Levi signed, seizing Eren’s hand and pulling on it.

Eren took a moment to get his bearings under the water. The moon shone down through the gentle waves, illuminating the reef. Rays of light danced on the ocean floor, muted as if through stained glass. Night and the ocean was just as busy as ever. He dove a bit deeper and stingrays flew overhead like seagulls in the sky. A parrot fish, spooked by Eren, fled for cover. Eren laughed, small bubbles leaving his mask as he did so. He saw a strange piece of glowing coral and hovered to examine it.

Without warning he was plunged into darkness. He looked upward and saw the cause. An incredibly large figure carved out the water above him, blocking the light from the moon like an eclipse. Levi pulled Eren’s hand again, dragging him towards the creature. Eren shook his head, paralyzed with fear and Levi released him to go dance in the fins of the giant creature. Hesitantly, Eren drew closer.

“Please don’t be a shark,” he thought and his heart began beating faster when he realized that’s exactly what it was. A giant shark with curious spots all over its body.

A whale shark!

Eren had heard of them before, seen them on the covers of nature magazines, but he never expected he’d see one with his own eyes. At Levi’s insistence, he approached it and placed a hand on it. Its skin was rough and tacky and he pulled away to watch instead. It moved silently with grace, a gentle giant, a titan of the sea, simply passing through the reef.

They watched it go, long after it became a speck in the distance.

“Come,” Levi insisted.

He led Eren to the mouth of a cave. Eren hesitated. He only had so much air in his tank and he needed to save it for his return journey. Yet this was the furthest anyone had ever come before with the merfolk. He was on the frontier of discovery.

He followed Levi inside.

It was nothing like cave diving with Hanji. He felt no fear when he was there with Levi. The number of turns they took were too many to name. Here and there he caught glimpses of the moon above but then the moonlight was gone and they were in the darkness, the only sound was Eren’s breathing, the only sensation that of Levi’s scales brushing against him. Then the openings became too narrow for his gear. Levi backtracked and pulled him into a wide cave. There, Eren could see the stars. Wait, why stars and no moon? He squinted through his fogged mask and realized it was some kind of reflective substance glowing on the stalactite, looking a great deal like the night sky.

“Wow,” he said, crawling up onto the land.

“Off,” Levi pointed to Eren’s gear.

Eren removed it and continued gazing at the lights above them.

“Beautiful!” Eren signed.

Levi flicked his gaze upward and Eren saw a small smile there. It looked so foreign to see human emotions on his merman features but then it was gone in a flash. Eren crawled back into the water and Levi extended a hand to help steady him not cut his feet on the sharp rocks.

No snorkel, no oxygen, just flippers, a mask, and Levi, Eren’s heart was beating even faster than before as they neared the next opening. He fixed his mask and then gave Levi a thumbs up. Levi stared at it and then gave him a similar thumbs up. Eren put his arms around Levi’s neck and took several breaths. Levi gripped Eren under the arms and then he dove with Eren holding on for dear life, coasting through the cave opening and up to a pocket of air. Eren surfaced and gasped.

“Good?” Levi signed.

“Yeah,” Eren said, his words echoing off the glowing rocks, shivering slightly.

Levi carefully smoothed a cowlick in Eren’s hair. Then they were off again, dancing in the stars and the moonlight, bodies entwining. Eren pressed his face into the crook of Levi’s neck, the sensation of pink gills tickled Eren’s nose. When Eren came up for air again, Levi’s tail had wrapped around Eren’s legs, and he held his hand at the back of Eren’s head. He didn’t dive again, so Eren carefully opened his eyes.

They were in a shallow pool of clear water. Moonlight from a neighboring cave underneath lit the sandy bottom. Isabel lounged on the side of the water on a rock. Her eyes opened and Eren saw a hint of green before she closed them again. Farlan appeared out of it, resting half in the water, half out, head lolling back as he slept.

Levi put a finger to his lips and Eren nodded. He dove under the water and Eren followed.

The cave was strangely circular in shape and the white sand carefully arranged into perfect concentric circles. In the very center of this construction were several large pearlescent orbs. Eren approached them curiously, but had to surface for air. He drew a deeper breath this time and plunged deeper to get a better look. They shimmered in the water. Eren examined them at a distance. Levi took his hand and carefully reached out to touch them. They were warm and so brilliant they glowed brighter than the moonlight.

Something inside them _moved_.

Eren snatched back his hand immediately and in the process accidentally kicked up sand. Levi let out a small noise that sounded like a laugh. Farlan reappeared in the water, sleepily redrawing his circles with his body to protect their treasure from the waves.

Eren surfaced and then it was time to leave. Levi pulled him away. Eren had one last image of Isabel singing softly to the water before he disappeared into the mouth of a new cave.

This one was very similar to the previous. Round, yet the vaulted ceiling had the smallest of openings where the moon was barely visible. Eren swam over to a flat surface, thankful for the rest as he climbed up and gained back his breath. Levi hopped out of the water and landed next to Eren as he removed his flippers.

Levi had this strange look in his eyes all evening, a spark that Eren didn’t quite understand and so he avoided looking at it too long lest he become nervous. He instead inspected the moonlight grotto. There was a small mark above him and he twisted his head to look at it. A handprint. It had been scratched out in stone, tracing the lines of a small webbed hand. Eren put his hand over it. It dwarfed the tiny print.

Levi tapped his chest. “Me.”

Levi? When would Levi have ever been that size? And then he understood.

“Home,” Eren signed.

Levi nodded.

That wasn’t the only handprint, there were several.

“Who is this?” Eren pointed at another.

“Mother,” Levi signed, touching it sadly.

“And this?” Eren asked.

“Father,” Levi signed.

“And this?” Eren continued.

Levi hesitated for a moment. “Father.”

The two handprints were not nearly the same size though fully adult so Eren figured Levi didn’t know quite how to explain all of his relations. Instead he moved on, too curious about the rest of the symbols on the walls.

“What’s this?” he pointed to a figure of a merman in white.

“Grandfather,” Levi signed.

Eren found a new drawing, this one at low tide. It was clearly drawn by a child. It was of a giant shark eating a merman with stink lines coming off of him.

“You didn’t like him very much?” Eren asked and Levi only blinked his second eyelids in response.

He sat down next to Levi, dipping his feet in the water.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Eren told him.

He laid back, to better look at the swollen moon, putting his arms behind his head. Levi’s fins twitched and then he slowly laid on his side, looking intently at Eren. Eren patted his chest and Levi’s ear fins rotated towards him before he cautiously scooted closer and rested his head on Eren’s chest. He laid there stiff as a corpse and when Eren moved his hand, he froze. Eren absentmindedly brushed at Levi’s silky hair, like he had Isabel and then he felt Levi go limp. Levi relaxed into him, his claws digging into Eren’s wet suit pulling him closer. He closed his eyes and for a moment he looked in pain, whole face scrunched up, before blinking rapidly. Eren kept petting his hair as Levi listened to his heartbeat.

After a long time, during which the moon disappeared from their small window, Levi sat up, his brow furrowed deep in thought.

“Same,” Levi motioned.

“Yeah, we both have heartbeats,” Eren agreed.

Levi traced a line down Eren’s neck pointedly.

“Our gills are inside, right here,” Eren said, sitting up as well and pressing along his ribs.

He stood up and unzipped his wetsuit down to his waist.

“See? Here,” Eren said, putting Levi’s hands on his chest. “Deep breath and out.”

Levi tugged at the wetsuit trying to peer down the front.

“Uh!” Eren said, quickly covering himself.

“Same?” Levi asked, pointing between Eren’s legs.

He looked so intent and curious. Eren realized the only time he’d seen naked humans had been briefly in a movie. He was probably confused. Eren stood there, shivering and hopping from foot to foot as he tried to make up his mind. Well the merfolk were naked all the time, in fact it felt odd to be the only clothed one. He pulled off the rest of his suit, down to his legs and kicked it off. He sank back onto the rock, now shivering and rubbing his arms.

Levi inspected him carefully, tracing the blue veins in Eren’s arms, pausing curiously at his belly button and then stared at Eren’s member with an intense expression. Looking a great deal like Hanji with lab samples, Levi carefully picked up Eren’s flaccid member with his forefinger and thumb and examined it.

“Ah!” Eren flinched and Levi set it down. “Sorry it’s very cold in here so—“

Levi pushed Eren’s testicles out of the way with his thumb.

“This is really uncomfortable,” Eren said gritting his teeth, turning a bright shade of red.

Levi let those rest as well. Eren sighed. Then with a look of determination, he grabbed Eren’s leg and lifted it up, looking between his legs.

“Okay, that’s a little closer than we need to—ow! Hey!” Eren yelped as Levi poked him.

Levi released him, now looking satisfied as if he now had all the answers in the known universe.

“Same,” Levi signed.

He pulled Eren’s hand down to his ventral fins. They parted and for the first time Eren could see there was a large slit there, tinged pink around the edges like his gills. Levi’s reached into this space and pulled out a member that looked very similar to Eren’s yet with the same mottled coloring present at his temples and abdomen and set with ridges. He pressed Eren’s hand to it and Eren pulled away like he’d been burnt.

“That’s very impressive, yes, very nice!” Eren said, covering his eyes.

Levi rolled over and moved his other fins on his back.

“No I don’t need to see the other end!!!” Eren insisted.

Levi let out a snort and then patted his chest, mirroring what Eren had done earlier. Eren hesitated, being very naked but he rested against Levi’s chest. Levi’s tail wrapped around Eren’s legs, keeping them warm. Levi hummed gently, the sound only interrupted as Eren inquired more about the art on the wall and Levi answered him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like this, please leave comments or kudos! Idk if I should change the rating on this one because it's not smut it's just two beings exploring each other's bodies. Thoughts?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is forced to leave the country. Levi becomes sick. Moblit is banished off the docks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> \--  
> "Green Light"//Lorde
> 
> This chapter has some angst, but don't worry, it ends on a happyish ending!

In the beginning there was only water. Nothing but an inky black expanse. Nothing but infinity. Nothing but forever. Then the maker made the merrows. The first merrows were bigger than the largest whale. They were beloved by the maker. The merrows swam in the first creation and there was never any hunger and there was never any sadness or loneliness.

Then the maker split the world in two.

There was water above and water below, two worlds touching, mirroring one another, separated by a thin black layer. But the merrows were sad because they were separated from their family. The strongest of merrow swam through that barrier, poking holes in it, creating stars and draining the water from one half. This was now the sky. The merrow on this side had no place to swim in, so the maker made land for them to live. These were now humans.

But there are places where the two worlds meet in the middle. Where water and water meet just like it once was in the heavens.

“…The _halocline_ ,” Hanji breathed.

“Exactly,” Eren said, his two hands hovering over one another. “That’s why he attacked you when you were by the caves. This place—this island—the Titan’s Eye cenote—is sacred to them. It’s…holy. It’s where they bury the dead and where they birth their young.”

“Huh,” Hanji said. “And Levi told you all of this?”

“Yes, sortof. It took a long, long time. They have it drawn on the walls, so I might not have it all right but—“

“Not bad,” Levi signed, lounging against Eren on the dock.

“I got most of it?” Eren asked.

Levi made a sign that Eren was all too familiar with, but left Hanji lost.

"What's that mean?" Hanji asked.

"Oh, well, it's a phrase in their language," Eren explained.

"...But what does it mean?"

"It's hard to explain..." Eren said, shrugging his shoulders.

Levi repeated the motion, flexing the fins on his tail and Eren laughed.

"Does it mean 'Yes'?" Hanji asked in confusion.

Eren flexed his hand, a human mimic of the gesture.

"Does it mean...'No'?" Hanji asked, nose wrinkling.

Levi flexed his tail and they both laughed, much to Hanji's consternation.

"It's hard to explain. Sometimes it means yes, sometimes it means no, sometimes it means maybe, it just is."

"Huh?"

“Goggles smart but dirty,” Levi signed, tapping his teeth indicating the bit of lettuce Hanji had missed while brushing.

Eren laughed appreciatively and Hanji’s nostrils flared, then they surreptitiously worked to remove the piece with a fingernail.

“Well he’s not wrong, Hanji you’re a bit of a slob.”

“Am I allowed on the docks yet?” Moblit asked nervously from the shore.

Levi and Eren both flexed their hand and then Eren broke down into laughter again.

“Date April 19th and M1 and my assistant are moving from a pidgin toward a kind of creole, developing their own sign language to speak to one another. Now M1 is teaching my assistant signs. I cannot help but feel elated at how this will enable us to learn more about the merfolk and their culture—“

“Oh, that’s a microphone,” Eren signed for Levi. “It’s like a—“

“Machine,” Levi guessed. “Noise go in machine. Machine come out boxes.”

“…Yes. Yes! Yes you’re exactly right!” Eren laughed excitedly.

Levi’s face was indifferent but Eren couldn’t help but notice he puffed out his fins.

“And Eren says that he has witnessed evidence that M2 and F1 have begun preparing for young. Did you say they were eggs, Eren? Or zygotes?”

“I…couldn’t say? One moved.”

“It…moved,” Hanji hissed into their recorder, looking about ready to faint. “You know what this means Eren? This could repopulate the pod!”

“Many eggs,” Levi signed. “No young.”

“What do you mean? There have been no offspring?” Eren asked, confused.

“Many eggs. No young,” Levi repeated. “Many years.”

 “Why is that?” Eren asked Hanji.

“Who can say? We don’t know enough about them to know anything for sure. Could be biological, could be the habitat, mercury levels in the water, global warming. Or maybe it’s just that the merfolk have been disappearing at an increasing rate.”

“Like bees?”

“Like bees,” Hanji agreed.

“What?” Levi asked.

“Oh bee…bee is like a bug, it flies and stings you.”

“Jellyfish,” Levi signed confidently.

“Uh, sortof.” Eren frowned now in thought. “But really? Isabel and Farlan have been laying the eggs and trying all this time but no little merrows? It’s so sad.”

Levi only flexed his fins in response.

<*>

Levi’s grasp of communication with humans was only getting better. Now Eren and Levi would sit out on the rock in the middle of the lagoon and have talk from sun up to sun down. Levi now liked to lie across Eren’s lap while he sunned his tail. Other times, Levi would sit next to him, tucking into Eren’s arms. He did not extend the same level of physical contact with Hanji, although he did tell Eren he would refrain from trying to drown Moblit, which was quite the improvement.

There were disadvantages to the new level of their relationship.

For example, Levi wanted to know a lot about human habits. The personal kind. Once Eren stood up to head inside and Levi wanted to know why. When Eren tried to explain that he needed to use the restroom, Levi was even more confused. Why couldn’t Eren simply go in the ocean?

“Well it’s not that kind of—it’s sortof—I mean um—“

“Take a shit,” Levi signed.

“Levi! Where did you learn that?” Eren asked mortified.

Then Eren had to explain toilets to Levi. That was not a conversation he wanted to have, thankfully Hanji was more than comfortable explaining the concept. He dodged a bullet with that one.

Eren went to grab groceries while Hanji gave these human biology lessons (they’d taken to bringing models of human biology with them which Levi accepted with a solemn air). Hanji claimed there was no reason to be shy about biology and that would only help dispel misunderstandings they had about one another. Often Levi would point out the differences between them and Hanji would scramble to make a log of anything he said.

“And that’s how human reproduction works!” Hanji finished. “You’re lucky you have me. My parents never gave me the sex talk. I had to teach myself.”

“And you’re very good at it!” Moblit called all the way at the end of the dock where he was banished whenever Levi was near (Levi’s promise not to drown Moblit did nothing to reassure the veterinary dentist).

“Questions?”

“Many,” Levi signed. “When do humans lay eggs?”

“Oh, they don’t. We do live births, like whales. And some sharks. You know, I think I can find a video somewhere—ah!”

They played a video of a live birth from an obstetrics clinic and Levi’s fins flattened as he watched it.

“Phone is ringing!” Moblit called.

“Can you get it? The head is crowning!” Hanji answered back.

Levi dove under the water.

“It’s Eren!” Moblit shouted.

“Levi come back! It’s not done yet!” Hanji waved as Levi took off.

Levi was very done.

“He’s in jail!” Moblit continued.

“What?”

“Eren! They arrested him!”

<*>

Eren had been on his way back with groceries when his car got a flat tire. With a tenuous grasp on the language and not knowing who would be able to help him, he had attempted to change the tire himself. He very nearly finished too when police pulled up next to him to help. However, when he waved them off in fractured phrases, they inquired about his visa. Apparently, “What visa?” was not an appropriate response.

“It won’t be too bad,” Hanji consoled him, rubbing his back. “Rico will get the paperwork sorted. You just have to leave the country for a few months and then re-enter with the new visa.”

Eren groaned.

They had given him three days to vacate the country or else they would officially charge him and deport him. He didn’t bother packing all of the things he had collected since arriving, hoping to be back as soon as possible. He threw his clothes and wallet in a bag. And then it was time for the harder conversation.

“Levi,” Eren tried. The sun was low in the sky. He was taking the first red eye and he needed to take the ferry to the mainland then taxi two hours to the airport.

“I have to go,” his voice wobbled.

“Take a shit,” Levi teased.

“Ha, no. I have to go away.”

Away wasn’t an easy concept to explain.

“Eren go and come back,” Levi waved dismissively.

“No, um, this time I’m going away for a lot longer.”

Levi ceased chasing the fish he was hunting.

“Go? Where?”

“Home,” Eren signed.

“I will come with you,” Levi decided after thinking it over.

“No, Levi you can’t come,” Eren said weakly. “I have to go. I don’t want to, but I have to. They’re making me leave.”

“Goggles?” Levi asked suspiciously.

“No, not Hanji, not Moblit. They want me to stay too but people. Other people.”

“I will hunt these other people.” Levi looked ready to do away with whoever was keeping Eren away from him. His face turned into a dark grimace.

“No! No. Levi, I can’t…I can’t explain everything to you right now. I have to go.”

“When Eren come back?”

“I…I don’t know. Maybe a few weeks, months? There’s a chance I might never be able to come back.”

Levi’s brow continued to furrow, not understanding what all Eren was saying and coming to grips with the slow realization that he might not ever see Eren again. Eren knelt on the docks and wrapped his arms around a still confused Levi.

“I’m going to miss you,” he said and now the tears had overtaken him.

They fell onto Levi’s shoulder and when they broke, Levi wiped at the tears on Eren’s face.

“Bye Levi,” Eren said, shouldering his bag and heading for the taxi waiting out front.

“Eren come back!” Levi signed, but Eren didn’t turn around to see him so he let out a sharp bark.

Eren’s step haltered. He had to force his feet forward.

“Levi no! Wait!” Hanji shouted and Eren turned around just once to see Levi on his belly in the dirt, trying to drag himself to Eren with his powerful arms. He looked up, fins and gills flaring, arms and legs covered in grass and sand, pleading with one look. _Stay_.

“I’m sorry,” Eren whispered, shaking his head.

He cried the entire way to the airport.

<*>

“Okay so I didn’t tell him you’re on the call because I didn’t want to confuse him. When I explained the internet to him, he thought it existed in the air so…” Hanji said through Skype.

“In all fairness you explained it really fast and you started like way back at the beginning with the invention of the first computer,” Moblit offered, coughing into his hand politely.

“How is he doing?” Eren asked.

“Um, not great. He keeps asking when you’ll be back. We had to carry him back into the water because he didn’t want to leave the shore. He’s just sitting on his rock now. We’re not sure if he’s been eating today.”

At Eren’s obvious distress, Hanji exchanged a look with Moblit.

“How are you doing?”

“Um, my dad is mad at me. All my friends are in college, the college I dropped out of to stay out there. So not great. Can I see Levi? I want to talk to him.”

“Sure.”

“Levi!” they called loudly.

Levi ignored them.

“Levi?” Eren asked and Levi’s fins perked up.

In a flash he was at the docks, only his nose and eyes visible as he peered at the screen, trying to determine where it was Eren’s voice was actually coming from.

“Hi Levi!” Eren attempted to smile.

“Eren come back?” Levi asked hopefully.

“Not yet,” Eren explained.

The way Levi’s face fell crushed him.

<*>

Eren spent all of his time, filling out forms, calling Rico, calling various government offices for an update on his visa. Who would have thought the scientific discovery of the millennium would be hampered by petty bureaucracy? He thought if he filled all of his time he wouldn’t have to think about Levi. He checked the prices of flights hourly.

“We’ve barely seen you since you got back,” Mikasa told him, as he attempted to pass the time ordering 15 pairs of swimming fins. “Come hang out with us.”

Eren was miserable company. He couldn’t even find it in him to get mad when Jean put his arm around Mikasa and inform him they were dating. Sasha stole his fries and he didn’t even blink. Connie tried to cheer him up with a dirty joke and he only sighed. He excused himself for the bathroom in the middle of a story from Reiner and checked his phone.

[Hanji:] Levi is sick.

[Eren:] what? how?? with what?

[Hanji:] we don’t know. he’s barely eating. he’s having trouble swimming. he seems disoriented. We have him in the lagoon and I’ve been putting fishheads in a blender for him and he’ll take a few sips and then refuse the rest. i’ll text you with updates.

Eren returned to the table, still in shock.

“Dude, what is up with you?” Jean asked, rolling his eyes. “You are such a bummer.”

“Jean—“ Marco sighed.

“I might actually have to agree with Jean on this one, Marco,” Connie said.

“My friend is sick,” Eren said. “And I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get back to the island to take care of him.”

It took Mikasa and Armin all night to console him.

<*>

“Um…” Hanji answered the Skype call with their glasses off, wiping at their face in exhaustion. “Levi is getting worse. We don’t know what we can give him to help. We tried a course of antibiotics, but it made him worse. He was so out of it, he actually let me draw blood. Which, normally would be so exciting, but…”

“Can I talk to him?” Eren asked.

There was a shuffle of static as Hanji moved their laptop around. “Levi! Look! It’s Eren.”

To Eren’s surprise he was leaning against Hanji. At Eren’s name, his eyes fluttered open.

“Hi,” Eren signed.

“Eren beautiful,” Levi signed happily, then closed his eyes again.

Levi’s condition worsened. His scales turned white and flaked off. He slept in the shallows of the lagoon nearly all day and barely ate. His teeth fell out, even though Moblit said there was no reason, they weren’t rotten at all. At the same time, Eren was frantically calling Rico begging for updates on his paperwork.

It was 4:30AM nearly eight weeks after he left the island when he got the call.

“Eren?” Rico’s crisp voice cleared any cobwebs in Eren’s head immediately. “Sorry…I’m in Sydney at the moment. Timezones. All of your papers are in order. I’ve had them overnighted to you. You should have them tomorrow afternoon.”

Eren had his bag packed and was waiting at the door for the mail. The second he had it in his hand, he was in the car anxiously bouncing his leg up and down as Grisha veered through rush hour traffic.

“Love you miss you!” he shouted, hugging Armin, Mikasa, and his father before running to his flight.

His first flight was to a major hub and he sat right at the gate with a three our layover, tapping his hand on his knee and checking his phone.

Hanji called him but he could barely hear them. “EREN! Weather is—bad—here—Levi—gone—I hope to take shelter but—we have to lock down the facility and prepare—storm—“

First the flight was delayed ten minutes. Then delayed two hours. Finally, the desk attendant made an announcement.

“Sorry folks, due to Tropical Storm Zeke, all flights are delayed until further notice. Thank you for your patience.”

“This is bullshit!” Eren huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“What crawled up your ass and died?” asked the woman across from him.

“Ymir,” snapped her friend, elbowing her.

“He’s not the only one—“ Ymir hissed. Then to Eren, “You’re not the only one whose flight is delayed. We’re missing our honeymoon by the way.”

“Congrats,” Eren muttered, still bouncing his leg and worrying at his lip.

The two women exchanged a look between them.

“I’m Christa!” the smaller of the two said, choosing to sit next to Eren instead of across.

“…Eren,” he finally offered.

“Going on vacation?” she asked brightly.

Ymir glowered at her partner only to drop it when Christa fixed her with a look of her own.

“Not really.”

“Work,” Eren said. It wasn’t too far a stretch of the truth.

“Oh, what do you do?” Christa asked.

“Uh.” Oops. “Uh, but I’m actually going back because a friend of mine is sick.”

“Oh no!” Christa said, her big blue eyes shining up at him. “That’s awful!”

For some reason she was incredibly easy to talk to. He found himself telling her nearly everything about Levi, leaving out a few major points of interest like Levi’s serious case of merman flu.

“I hope he feels better,” Christa said, clasping Eren’s hand in her own.

“Ugh, no one is answering the phone at the hotel,” Ymir groaned.

Both Eren and Christa fixed her with a glare.

“What? This place wasn’t cheap!”

“I’m going to give you my cell number and please text me with any updates,” Christa said, throwing her arms around his neck.

“I will,” he promised.

Nearly twenty-four hours after he landed, over thirty-six since he started his journey, they finally began boarding the flight. He threw himself into his chair and fell asleep. The flight attendant woke him as they began their descent. He was so agitated they stopped him at customs, looking over his new documents with extra scrutiny.

“It’s not like I’m a drug runner!” Eren protested.

This earned him twenty minutes in a windowless room as they pulled apart all of his belongings. The didn’t find anything, although they were perplexed at the many, many pairs of flippers. Finally he was free. He ran down the concourse to a huge crowd. Some of the main roads were still blocked due to the storm and the taxis were backed up.

“They said it’s going to be an hour before we can get a taxi,” Ymir informed Eren as he rolled up next to her. “Which is good because our room isn’t ready yet.”

Maybe Hanji would send Moblit with the Jeep if he asked. Sure, Moblit would have to take the car ferry—wait, how backed up were the ferries??

“C’mon, c’mon,” Eren dialed, but Hanji didn’t answer. Then his phone erupted and he nearly dropped it as he answered Hanji’s Skype call.

“Hanji! How’s Levi?” Eren asked.

“Eren…” Hanji started.

They were crying.

“Levi disappeared before the storm hit and we haven’t seen him since.”

“Well he probably just took shelter in the caves,” Eren said.

“Eren…he was so weak. I don’t think…Look. This washed up on shore.”

Hanji moved the camera to show something that Moblit was dragging onto the beach.

A tail. A long pale bleached tail that could only belong to a merfolk. Hanji held the camera over the damage at the fins. There, Eren could see where the tuna net had cut into Levi’s side. His stomach dropped.

Eren barely heard Hanji say, “I’m so sorry Eren. He’s gone.”

<*>

He fell into a seat and cried right there in the middle of pudgy tourists wearing Hawaiian shirts and board shorts and all scrambling for margaritas. Christa rubbed his back and tried to give him her nachos.

“You let me know if you need anything,” she told him.

He put his head down on a table in the food court, feeling the cool laminate surface against his warm cheeks. Levi…

It wasn’t fair. Levi deserved better. He was so smart and strong. He liked to keep his food and his body clean. He shouldn’t have succumbed like this. It wasn’t fair!

Eren knew he was receiving strange looks but he didn’t care. He just wanted to get to the lagoon and search for him. Because he couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t!

Eren groaned and looked up at the television. The tv set had a poor set of English subtitles.

“Weather fun time for beach party,” the screen read.

Then the news anchor switched stories and an accompanying photo popped up with the caption, “Levi.” Eren squinted. The fuzzy picture was of a pale man with dark hair and a very unamused expression that looked almost like a mugshot, if it weren’t for the hospital gown he was wearing.

What?

Eren climbed up on to the table by the television and put his nose against the screen, much to the confusion of the two kids eating their tacos. Was that—?

The picture disappeared and Eren smacked the tv. “C’mon!” he roared.

The English captions caught up a whole minute later.

“One casualty of the storm is this man who was found unconscious on the beach suffering from amnesia. He is nonverbal and needs critical care at Sina Hospital. If you recognize him please immediately call this number—“

“CHRISTA!” Eren shouted, running outside, whipping his head around.

“Yes Eren?” she asked, handing her bags over to the taxi.

“You said _anything_ , right?”

“Within reason!” Ymir barked.

“Give me your taxi,” he begged, getting on his knees.

“Of course!” Christa beamed.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Ymir groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “…The halocline,” Hanji breathed. HEY THAT'S THE NAME OF THE FIC! ;P
> 
> My tumblr is [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)
> 
> ONLY TWO MORE CHAPTERS TO GO! Next chapter is the finale and then it's just an epilogue!!!!!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren rushes to the hospital. Hanji calls with exciting news. Levi is...different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER! :D (but there will be an epilogue)
> 
> This was originally posted on my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/) under the title "Merfluff." Don't worry, new name, but still fluffy.
> 
> If you like please leave kudos and/or comments!

 

In the end they split the cost as the hospital was on the way to the resort.

“Good luck!” Christa called out of the taxi window.

“Thanks!” Eren yelled back, slamming the door and running inside with his luggage.

He stopped at the check-in desk, suitcase hitting his heels as he squealed to a halt. “Levi!” he shouted, slamming his hand.

They stared at him.

He looked around and saw a flier reading, “Do you know this man?” and seized it.

“Levi!” he insisted, pointing at the picture.

“Floor three.”

“Levi!” Eren cried, stepping off the elevator.

He was shushed by several nurses.

“Levi!” he hissed in a stage whisper.

A head poked out the door. But it wasn’t Levi’s.

“Levi?” Eren pointed at the flier.

“Oh! Do you know him?” asked the man. “I’m so glad someone saw the flier.”

Eren rounded the corner and stopped. There was a pale someone in the bed that looked very much like his Levi only…different. Eren looked at his barely-there brows, thin lips, and his ears. His ears were different! Slightly pointed at the tips, but there was a human pinnae instead of spines. Eren’s eyes ran down his arms. Last time Eren had seen him on Skype his nails had fallen out, but he had nails! They were clipped short and rounded. And the webbing between his fingers had disappeared. Eren reached out to touch his hand and the man in the chair coughed politely.

“Sorry, who are you?” he asked, sizing Eren up with suspicion.

“I’m his…I’m Eren,” Eren said spinning around so fast he almost fell.

“His boyfriend?” the man guessed gently.

“Yes, that,” Eren nodded.

He put a hand on the bed for balance and found he was touching a _leg_. He removed it quickly as if he were burned. Then cautiously pulled up the end of the covers and let out an audible gasp when he saw _toes_.

Mouth open, he turned around to face the stranger. “Toes!”

“Hm?”

“Uh, nothing. Who’re you?” Eren asked, shaking his head.

“Oh! I’m Erwin! Erwin Smith,” he said, offering his hand.

“Okay?” Eren said because that explained nothing. He realized he probably came off as extremely rude.

“I’m a social worker. I was on vacation here with my husband Mike because he said I was a workaholic and needed a break and because I had all of this vacation time saved up. He’s probably across the street about three drinks in at this point. He is not very happy with me at the moment.”

Eren stared.

“Sorry that was probably a weird thing to say. What do the kids call it? TMI? But I got a call from the US Embassy because the hospitals here had a non-verbal man with no identification who they believed was an American citizen because he uses ASL but it’s not really ASL? I tried to research what it is he could be signing but I haven’t had much success. It’s probably something he developed with those close to him—“

“Yes. Yes it is. It’s how we talk,” Eren said, nodding eagerly.

“Are you…he keeps talking about ‘little brother’ is that you?” Erwin asked.

“Yes! That’s me.”

“You just said you were his boyfriend,” Erwin pointed out, catching the lie.

“It’s what his little sister calls me. She calls him big bro, so I’m little bro,” Eren said, nervously swinging his arms.

“Does she have the same condition he does?” Erwin asked. “The underdeveloped vocal cords?”

“…Yes, sortof.” Eren was out of his depth here. He just knew he needed to get Levi out of the hospital as fast as possible.

“There’s also the issue of neglect…” Erwin said, turning his shrewd eyes on Eren.

“Neglect?”

“…You should talk to the doctor,” Erwin said.

“Is Levi going to be okay?” Eren asked anxiously. “Is he unconscious? Or?”

“You’ll really need to talk to the doctor. He’s sleeping right now.”

Sleeping.

“Oh,” Eren spun on the spot again, relief flooding through him. “Sleeping!”

He needed to call someone. He felt around for his phone. Hanji? No. Rico.

“Excuse me,” Eren said, stepping outside for a moment. “Rico!”

“Yes, Eren, I have been appraised of the situation. I will be landing with the helicopter at the laboratory shortly to collect the remains. Thankfully our benefactor is just off the coast—“

“No! Don’t go to the lab! Come to the hospital!”

“Hospital?”

“Levi is alive! He’s—he’s—well he’s different that’s for sure.”

“Eren. Don’t talk to anyone, don’t say anything. I am coming straight there.”

“Can you get him released?”

“If I can’t then I’m not worth what Mr. Pixis pays me.” She hung up.

A man in a white coat approached Eren. “Are you family?”

“Yes! I am…”

_Don’t say anything!_

“I am…what you say that I am.” Eren winced.

“I need to talk to you about Levi’s condition and get some information. Do you know his blood type?”

“…No?”

“Any allergies?”

An aversion to barnacles and mildew buildup?

“I don’t know?”

 The doctor sighed looking very impatient. “He has a very rare medical case. We’ve never seen anything like it. Vocal cords are underdeveloped, he has some webbing between his feet—“

“Is that bad?”

“No, but it is unusual—“

“Well then—“ Eren waved his hand aside.

“And his teeth are—there’s no decay at all? It’s like he suddenly grew them yesterday!”

“Sounds painful,” Eren said weakly.

“And then there is significant muscle atrophy to his legs.”

“The what to his legs?” Eren said, distracted by movement in the hospital room. Erwin’s head moved and Eren couldn’t tell if he was listening, signing, or just shifting in his seat.

“He has almost no muscle tone to his legs. It will take months, maybe years of physical therapy before he can walk. If he can walk! He may need multiple surgeries. It’s like he’s never walked in his life. It’s the most extreme case of neglect I’ve ever seen!”

Eren’s phone rang. “Hold on I need to get this.”

“Put whoever is in charge on the line,” Rico barked.

“It’s for you. It’s his…lawyer.”

The doctor hesitated for a moment, perhaps pondering how the quiet man had gained legal counsel so quickly, then took the phone. “Hello?” he asked.

That had it settled, Rico would sort him out. Eren turned back to the room and—

“Wait!” Erwin shouted a moment too late.

A very strong and sturdy something hit Eren in the middle knocking him to the ground.

“Levi! Oof you’re heavy!” Eren complained.

He had heard Eren in the hallway and insisted Erwin help him into his wheelchair before flinging himself at Eren. They fumbled for a bit, Levi trying to prop himself up on Eren’s chest. He was here. He was alive. He was…very close. And angry.

Levi let out a silent shout, pounding his fist on the ground for emphasis.

“I know! I’m sorry!”

Levi let out a weak warble.

“I’m here now,” Eren said, wrapping his arms around his waist. “I’m here.”

He could feel Levi sobbing against him and he was crying too. They held each other, not caring if others were watching. Levi pushed himself up onto his arms, looking down at Eren. He had the exact same eyes, pale grey like storm clouds. Levi ran his thumb over Eren’s cheek.

“Look at your hands!” Eren said, lacing his fingers in them.

Levi picked up a foot to demonstrate.

“Your feet!” Eren cried. He put his hands on Levi’s face, then tugged at his ears. “I’m gonna have to get used to these.”

“You’re beautiful,” Levi signed.

Levi lowered his head and pressed his lips to Eren’s. It was soft and sweet and Eren melted into his kiss. The effect was ruined about half a second later though as Levi puffed up his cheeks and blew into Eren’s mouth like he was giving CPR. Eren coughed and broke away.

“Kiss,” Levi signed, looking very smug.

“We’ll have to work on that,” said Eren, patting his shoulder.

He struggled to get Levi up off the floor. He was surprisingly heavy.

“Huh…” Eren said, arms under Levi’s armpits. “You’re shorter than I thought you’d be…”

Levi tilted his head, not quite understanding.

“Nothing, you look great!” Eren said quickly.

Actually, Levi with his new human features was…handsome. Very handsome. Eren blushed with the realization as he helped Levi back into the wheelchair.

“Okay let’s go,” Eren said.

“Eren, Levi’s not ready to just leave—“ Erwin started.

“You’re discharged!” the doctor shouted suddenly, looking pale as he handed Eren back his phone. “Have a good trip Mr. Jaeger and Mr…uh…”

They all stared at Levi realizing he didn’t have a last name. Noticing eyes on him, Levi looked to Eren for explanation.

Last name. Uh. Levi Arlert. Uh. Jaeger—wait not Jaeger—don’t get ahead of yourself Eren! What was he thinking?

“Ackerman. Levi…Ackerman,” Eren finished. “Let’s go Levi!”

Levi watched Eren walk over to the elevator and then looked at Erwin with a confident smirk and without warning pushed himself out of the wheelchair in an ill-fated attempted to walk.

“Careful!” both Erwin and Eren shouted, catching him as he fell.

Levi snorted in agitation as they righted him back into his chair.

“Legs stupid,” he signed, then crossed his arms over his chest.

“Yeah everything is a lot heavier out of the water,” Eren said reassuring Levi by patting his shoulder.

Levi looked from Eren’s hand to his face. “Kiss,” Levi signed at Eren and he felt a blush creeping across his face again.

His phone rang again and answered it hurriedly.

“Eren! Eren you need to get here immediately!” Hanji shouted and Eren held the phone about a foot away from his head.

“Goggles,” Levi signed to Erwin.

“They are very loud,” Erwin signed back to him.

“And stinky. But nice.”

“Goggles and…Shark Tooth?” Erwin asked.

Eren couldn’t believe what he was seeing. First of all, Erwin and Levi were having a normal conversation like they were two old friends who were describing their family members. Secondly, when did they start using that sign for Moblit?

“Goggles and Shark Tooth have sex,” Levi continued to Erwin. “Gross.”

“Don’t watch then!” Erwin signed, laughing.

“I didn’t want to see!” Levi insisted.

“Eren! Did you hear me?” Hanji asked.

“…No?” Eren said.

“Eren you need to get to the lab immediately. Oh my god! Moblit! Don’t! I need to record—“

They hung up.

“We need to go to the lab,” Eren told Levi.

“Hold up, he doesn’t have any clothes,” Erwin said.

“Clothes,” Levi signed, indicating his hospital gown.

“No, those aren’t—yes you look very handsome in it, but I was thinking. Hold on.”

He opened up his suitcase and he and Erwin helped dress Levi.

“And a hat to keep the sun off your face,” Eren said, placing his dad’s old fishing hat on him.

“…Hat?” Levi signed cautiously, pointing up at it.

“Mhm!” Eren nodded.

“Kiss,” Levi signed as Eren leaned in.

“Um, we should leave!” Eren said straightening upright. “So let’s—“

Levi had a firm grip on Erwin’s arm and wasn’t letting go.

“It’s fine, I have to go see Nose,” Erwin signed.

“Nose?”

“Nose come too,” Levi signed.

“I don’t think my husband wants to join us,” Erwin laughed.

“Nose and Boss,” Levi glowered.

“Who is Boss?” Eren asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Oh I teach ASL so everyone has their own sortof shortcut sign and everyone just calls me Boss instead of Teacher and I refer to my husband as Nose—”

“I…okay?” Eren was so lost as to what was happening.

[Rico:] I’m on the hospital roof with the ‘copter.

“Levi our ride is here!” Eren shouted, grabbing his wheelchair.

Levi held on tight to Erwin’s wrist.

“Boss comes too,” Levi insisted.

Eren looked from Levi’s stubborn face to Erwin’s.

“Boss and Nose come too!” Eren agreed.

Erwin and his husband sat on either side of a very tiny Rico.

“Hi Rico, they need to sign the forms too,” Eren said, waving at them.

Rico looked on either side of her, her eye twitching behind her stylish silver frames before she pulled out the proper forms for Erwin and Mike. Erwin insisted on reading every single line, but Mike signed his with a grunt.

“You owe me a new vacation,” Mike muttered.

“Hey, we get a free helicopter ride! That’s romantic isn’t it?” Erwin asked, giving an apologetic smile.

“It smells like fish in here,” Mike complained.

Levi surreptitiously sniffed the shirt Eren had lent him.

<*>

When they landed, Hanji rushed at the helicopter. “Eren you wouldn’t believe what has happened, you need—“

They caught sight of Levi and screamed.

“Do not want!” Levi signed quickly, recoiling from Hanji’s enthusiasm.

“Levi! You’re alive! You’re! How is this possible, I need—“

“Hi, Erwin Smith, I don’t believe we’ve met,” Erwin introduced himself, running interference for Levi.

“Yes, hello, I am Dr. Zoe Hanji and—your fins! They’re—“

Hanji managed to dodge around Erwin and seized Levi around the middle. “I thought you had died! I—we—how did you manage??”

Levi sent a look asking for help at Eren.

“Hanji, he’s had a very long day, maybe—“ Eren tried.

“CUTTLEFISH!” Hanji shouted. “A cuttlefish can camouflage itself or change its shape to mimic hermit crabs. We already knew that the seirenes homo have color changing abilities. You see cuttlefish can even change the texture of their skin, so it’s possible—no but your tail—the tail washed up on the shore! Unless that belonged to a different creature—no that was definitely yours. More like a metamorphosis has occurred! You were shedding your old skin like a snake! Or like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Your teeth! Let me see them—“

“No,” Erwin said firmly, pulling Hanji away as they attempted to stick their fingers in his mouth. “Levi has already stated that he needs his space. Isn’t that right, Levi?”

Levi blinked and then nodded.

“So from now on, we’re going to ask before we touch, okay? All of us? Okay?” Erwin asked, motioning to the entire group.

Hanji squinted at Erwin and then fumbled around pulling their glasses over their eyes. “You treat him like a human,” they pointed out.

“I’m going to treat him like an equal, like the rest of you should,” Erwin said, confused by the situation, but nonetheless establishing control. “I’m sorry, what exactly is it that you people do here?”

Rico sniffed, barely paying attention still too busy on her phone, Mike fumbled around for a handkerchief in his Hawaiian shirt to blow his nose, and Eren and Hanji shared a look.

“Um, it’s sortof…uhh.” Eren couldn’t think where to start.

“Oh!” Hanji shouted, clapping their hands to their face. “Eren! Levi! Come see!”

They dragged Eren away from Levi over the docks and down to the lagoon.

“Look!” Hanji pointed.

Eren had never seen Hanji this excited before. Which was why he didn’t understand why they were pointing to a sunburnt Moblit standing on the docks, or the giant private yacht tethered further offshore.

“Okay?” Eren said.

“There’s three of them!” Moblit informed Eren, excitedly. 

“Three of what—“

A tiny little face popped its head out of the water and stuck out its tongue at Eren. Isabel crooned at it and it wiggled as hard as it could towards its mother’s voice.

“Levi! Hold on! Too fast!” Erwin warned as Levi wheeled his chair as fast as he could down the hill and onto the docks.

Levi rattled down the docks and then he and the chair tipped over into the water. For a moment, Eren thought he had it but then Levi’s hands splashed the water in distress and Eren dove in after him.

“Hey, it’s okay, I got you,” Eren said, hoisting Levi up as he coughed up saltwater.

Levi sputtered and shivered, looking like a wet doll in his oversized clothes.

“Yeah not so easy is it?” Eren teased, pulling Levi’s hat out of the water and placing it back on his head.

“Kiss,” Levi signed again.

His eyes flitted from Eren’s lips to his face. Eren felt a grin tug at his cheeks and lowered his head. He closed his eyes and felt Levi’s breath against him and a jolt of excitement shot through him.

There was a soft warbling noise to their right and they turned to see a small, green eyed merfolk looking at them.

“Oh my goodness, you’re so small!” Eren gasped.

Another popped up right next to it. This one had hazel eyes but wisps of flaming red hair. They had a difficult time maintaining balance in the water. Their heads were so large and heavy they tipped backwards into the water despite how hard their little fins flapped.

Levi mimicked them, splashing around, trying to keep his head above water.

“You got it?” Eren asked, releasing him.

Levi nodded.

The little merrow swam between Eren’s legs and then popped up next to him.

“Hello!” Eren said brightly. “Aren’t you a curious little girl?”

Their tails were completely translucent like jellyfish and Eren could see the way their hearts beat.

“Whoops, it’s a boy,” Eren said, discovering he had been mistaken.

“Here, Levi, let’s get you out of the water,” Moblit said, offering his hand.

Levi looked at his hand and then took it. Moblit beamed.

“You’re probably used to the water being a great deal warmer—“Moblit started and then yelped as Levi pulled him into the water.

Levi huffed in laughter as Moblit flailed before righting himself, then wiped his face of all emotion when Eren caught him.

“We said no drowning,” Eren pointed out.

“He fell,” Levi signed.

“What…what am I looking at?” Erwin asked, sitting down heavily on the docks.

“Family,” signed Levi, all three of the tiny merrows busy clinging to his arms. Two of them grabbed his index finger and he pulled them through the water.

“Mike, wake me up,” Erwin muttered to him.

Mike pinched his backside and Erwin yelped. “Okay so I am awake. Then how—what?”

Isabel and Farlan met Levi. They greeted him, rubbing their faces against where his gills had once been. They examined his ears and fingers and toes and embraced him again. Levi grabbed Farlan’s arms and tried to upset him in their wrestling game. Without much effort Farlan flipped Levi onto his back. Levi flailed about, coughing for air. Isabel then pretended to lose for Levi, but he didn’t have much interest in the game now that he was no longer the reigning champion.

“Sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea—Sir! Sir! Mr. Pixis, Sir!” a woman protested.

A very bald man with a very bristly mustache ignored her as he walked frog legged toward the water.

“I don’t care what you say about my heart,” Mr. Pixis waved her off. “I’m paying good money for this thing and I’m going for a swim!”

He donned a very expensive looking contraption that fitted over his mouth. “I should be able to communicate with them via this device.”

Eren watched as he hacked into his hand for some time before finally speaking.

“Hello!” he said. “I am Dot Pixis.”

The sound that came out of the machine was high pitched and so loud that Eren clapped his hands over his ears. The little merrows swam and hid behind their parents.

“There’s a million dollars I’ll never see back,” Mr. Pixis muttered to himself throwing the device over his shoulder at his beleaguered assistant. “I’m just going to jump in!”

“Wait are you…?” Erwin asked. “You’re _the_ Dot Pixis.”

“That I am, that I am!” he said, affixing Velcro so as to seal his legs together.

Erwin had to sit down at that. “I have no idea what is happening today.”

Eren didn’t recognize the name Dot Pixis, but he felt like he should. He instead looked at his strange suit and realized it looked sortof like the tails the merfolk had.

Pixis scooted to the edge of the water and then dropped down.

“Sir!” called his assistant.

“I’m fine! I’m fine,” he said, surfacing. “Now let’s see if I can get this thing working. Hello there my beauty!”

Isabel appeared amused by this strange old man and his mechanical tail.

“Do…do you need help?” Eren asked politely, because he was having a hard time keeping his head upright. “Here, I don’t think you need the tail.”

Eren switched it off and helped him stand in the shallows.

“Thank you, m’boy! You must be Eren.”

“Yes! That’s me!”

“Eren, let me tell you a story. When I was younger, my family would visit this island every year. There wasn’t much on it. Just a lot of pigs and undeveloped land. One day—whoops—“ He slipped on a rock. “One day, I looked out and there was a beautiful woman in the water. Now I’ve always had a thing for brunettes and a good figure—“

Eren coughed politely.

“And here was this knockout. I called to her and when she turned, I saw she had a tiny little babe in her arms. It was the most wondrous thing I’d ever seen. She even let me take her picture.”

He snapped his fingers and his assistant tapped on a tablet and tilted it for Eren to see.

Levi made a noise and released the rock he was holding on to try and look closer. He signed to Eren.

“Wait really? She’s your mother?”

“And when I made my first million I began funneling all of my money into Reef Protection. Of course that’s what I told investors, but I use a good part of my own cash to set up research facilities like this. And we have several satellite laboratories! So Eren! Dr. Hanji has told me you’ve been a great deal of help. And now we know that the seirenes homo can walk among us! Imagine how many people might be actually related to our mermaid friends? Care to come aboard as an official member? We have much to do!”

“I uh…I need to think about it,” Eren said weakly.

“Of course, Rico has filled me in on your friend Levi’s medical condition. We don’t want to poke and prod him like a lab subject, but we will cover his medical expenses, make sure he’s well taken care of.”

Mr. Pixis had a sly look just then and Eren realized he was just as good as sold.

“And someone needs to teach our friend about our world. Speak for him since he has no voice. What do you say?”

This was directed at Erwin Smith.

Erwin shook his head. “What? You don’t know my references, you don’t know anything about me. No I’m sure you can find a much better candidate to suit your…whatever this situation calls for.”

“I go by gut and I’ve got a good feeling about the two of you. How much do you make in a year? Fifty thousand? Sixty?”

“He makes half as much and works twice as hard,” Mike piped up.

“Rico write up a contract!” Pixis waved his hand as if the matter were settled already.

Erwin protested, but his arguments were not heard because Pixis became distracted. One of the tiny little merbabies swam up to him with its large eyes.

“Hello!” Pixis greeted it, bending his head toward the water. It seized upon his mustache and squealed with delight. The other two, sensing that he was not dangerous, joined clinging to his suit as Pixis roared with laughter.

Levi released his hold on the rock he clung to and tugged on Eren’s sleeve. Eren and Levi slipped behind the rock, away from prying eyes. Eren’s heart felt too large for his chest, like it was overflowing. He’d never felt so happy and overwhelmed in his life. He didn’t realize he was crying until Levi put a finger to the tears on his cheeks.

“Are you sad?” Levi asked.

“No, I’m very happy,” Eren said, wiping away the tears.

“Good,” Levi signed.

The sunlight was shining from behind the storm clouds over the two of them. Eren placed his hand beneath Levi’s chin and tilted it to meet his. Levi tugged Eren closer, arms wrapped around his shoulders.

They met in the middle. That place where water and water meet, when two souls touch and Eren felt his heart soar and race and sigh all at once.

He pulled away. “Now that’s how you kiss,” Eren signed.

 Levi ducked down below the water line to hide the blush spreading across his cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like, please leave kudos and/or comments or bug me at my tumblr [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Just the epilogue left, to say good-bye. :')


	12. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue.
> 
> "Don't Worry Baby"/Beach Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end! T_T I'm crying y'all!

Levi awoke to blackness surrounding him, the darkness cradling and rocking him and for a moment he felt like he were in the belly of a whale. Then he remembered where he was and sat up. He couldn’t sleep as long as humans, but that was just fine for him. Previously, there had been a whole world that was hidden to him, and now he wanted to see every single city and monument there was, he didn’t want to waste his time sleeping. He reached over to check his phone. The light illuminated Eren’s features as he lay in bed. Levi brushed his hair out of his eyes and stroked his cheek fondly.

He yawned and crawled up the stairs to open the hatch.

The sun was already so bright even this early in the day. There was no land visible at all on all sides. The largest thing on the horizon was Mr. Pixis’ yacht floating nearby. He stepped onto the deck and took quick stock of the sailboat. He double checked all the knots, the anchor, and the motor. They could have stayed on Mr. Pixis’ fancy yacht, but Levi wanted privacy for just the two of them. And Eren didn’t need the cushy beds and celebrity chef. The second Eren was in the hull, he rocked off to sleep, head on Levi’s chest.

Oh Eren.

He had tried so hard to resist any advances from Levi. “You don’t know any humans but me, Hanji, Moblit, and Erwin,” Eren had pointed out. “You might meet someone better.”

He didn’t understand what it was Levi saw in him. It took over a year for Levi to find the words to tell him.

Before Eren, Levi hadn’t even realized he was lonely. There was him and the ocean. The whole expanse. He was free. Or so he thought. Humans were to be avoided. He thought he hated them for their nets and the toxic taste of their fuel, for the boat propellers that carved up flesh so easily. And yet when he saw a human trying to fight against the waves, struggling to be free, he felt that first spark of curiosity. He’d never had that before. He’d never wondered what lay on the shore. Levi dragged him onto his board and coasted it into shore. He didn’t expect the human to live. He watched him for hours. Watched his ribcage move as he breathed slowly.

Love for another, is the purest thing there is, his mother had said. Only when you can love someone else so fully are you deserving of a soul. A soul—that which exists within us but also surrounds us.

“Who do you love?” Levi had asked.

“You,” she said, nuzzling at his gills.

She hadn’t returned that year and they said she must have been too close to the humans, that they killed her, either with their machines or with their weapons. The pod dwindled. Disease, injuries. Levi did his best to protect them. He performed his duty well, but it didn’t matter. They all died, turning into nothing but sea foam. Then it was just him and Isabel and Farlan. He forgot what that sense of community was like.

And Eren had done that. He had given him back a family. He had shared himself and his family and for that Levi loved him.

He raised his arms to the sky and tilted to the side until he heard something pop and then swung his arms. His legs were tight and his scar from surgery hurt. Walking was still so painful. Strangely enough they recommended water therapy to gain back muscle strength. He pulled on his flippers—that was so strange, he had traded in his tail for legs and yet he still used fins—and rinsed off his mask.

“Hello Levi!” shouted Petra from the high decks of the yacht. “Where’s Eren?”

Levi waved. “I wore him out,” he signed.

Petra laughed as if he’d said something particularly clever.

He set his mask down on the ladder and dove.

For just a moment he felt back like his old self. Alone in the wide blue. Then he felt several tails snake past him and he surfaced.

Farlan greeted him. “Farlan found many,” he hummed, placing several oysters on the ladder of the sailboat.

He could understand his family, but couldn’t speak to them. Nor could he speak to humans. He missed his voice, he missed singing (even if Isabel said he sounded like a wounded bat), but Erwin made sure that he was never ignored or pushed aside. He was teaching Levi how to read. He encouraged Levi to keep a journal. Eren had started giving Levi piles and piles of his favorite books. Farlan said the merfolk used to have words too. Levi wondered if it were true.

Levi grabbed his knife and wedged it in the shell until it popped open. The children surfaced and begged for the meat inside.

“Lazy,” he signed. “You’re all lazy. If I had my tail I would show you how to hunt proper.”

He gave them the meat anyway and they clung to his legs, looking up at him with their wide eyes that came from their mother.

“Food,” Isabel signed at him.

Levi flung an empty shell at her head. The next oyster yielded nothing better. He sighed.

“I found one,” the littlest cooed to him, holding out her little chubby fist.

He thanked her and opened it as well.

A pearl.

It wasn’t the first he had found, but the others were not nearly as perfect as he would have liked. He rolled this one in his hand, admiring the sheen and holding it up to the light.

Isabel and Farlan and the babies waited, eyes wide, tails out of the water in question. Levi nodded, clutching it to his chest. He looked up at them and nodded again. It was perfect.  

Farlan stilled suddenly. He put his head beneath the water, the spines on his ears rotating to get a better sound. He took off like a flash and Levi knew it was time. He dove off the sailboat and swam in powerful strokes to the back of the yacht, climbing aboard effortlessly.

“Levi!” Oluo said, handing him a towel.

“It’s time,” Levi signed.

“Time? Time for what?” Oluo shouted.

Levi walked through the kitchen, accepting a premade plate from Gunter the cook and waving to Eld the captain as he picked up the anchor.

“Levi we’ve talked about this,” Erwin groaned through the door, as Levi continued tapping on his door. “I don’t want to wake up before six and if you’re going to wake me—“

Erwin wrenched open the door and cut off mid-sentence as Levi took off the lid to the food and wafted it in front of his face.

“Coffee,” Erwin grunted and took his cup.

They tiptoed around Mike’s snoring form and out to the deck. Levi didn’t wait, he pulled the pearl out of his swim suit and showed it to Erwin.

“You found one?” Erwin sputtered, nearly choking on his coffee. “Oh that’s beautiful, Levi. When are you going to give it to him?”

“Now,” Levi said. “It’s time.”

Erwin nodded in understanding. “You should wake him and Goggles.”

Levi agreed. He finished his tea and left.

“Good morning to you too,” Erwin muttered sleepily, taking another sip of his coffee.

Hanji wasn’t in their cabin, having fallen asleep at the monitors. Levi cranked up the sound on the headphones they were wearing until Hanji jolted awake.

“It’s time!” he signed.

Hanji blinked at him and then clasped their hands over the headset. “Oh my god, you’re right!”

Levi didn’t wait, he dove off the decks and swam to the sailboat. He didn’t wake Eren, only kissed his temple and closed the pearl in his hand. The sailboat was ready before the yacht and they chased after Isabel’s glinting tail, the babes sticking close to the boat, playing with the dolphins that joined them.

Then they saw the reef and Levi brought the boat to rest.

“’m up, why are we moving?” Eren asked with a blanket around his shoulders, squinting at the pearl in his hands.

“We’re here,” Levi signed.

And then Eren heard it. A song. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of voices. They were all around them, surfacing to examine the boat and the newcomers. One by one the merfolk breached the water to greet them. They met Isabel and Farlan and the tiny merrows with open arms. Eren was so full of emotion he embraced Levi.

A whole new pod. A whole new life. A whole new wide world to be explored. And Levi wanted no one else to explore it with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pixis' team has been using recordings of the merfolk's singing to try and locate similar sounds and thus possibly locate another pod. Now Isabel and Farlan have a whole community to raise the babies in! ^_^ And Levi is there to help bridge the gap between the humans and merfolk. 
> 
> If you like this, please leave comments and/or kudos! And check out my other works!
> 
> Or follow me on tumblr at [perksofbeingawaifu](http://perksofbeingawaifu.tumblr.com/)


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